5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



#| 1w p mm hi ;\° V 

| UNITED STATES OF AmWca. | 



/ 



A COMMENTARY 



ON 



THE BOOK OF JOB. 



INTENDED FOR POPULAR USE. 



BY REV. J. K. BURR, D.D 






-' 6 (?. /( 

NEW YORK: 
PHILLIPS & HUNT. 



CINCINNATI : 
HITCHCOCK & WALDEN 



1879. 






Copyright 1879, BY 

PHILLIPS cfc HTXHXTIV 

New York. 



INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 



To the Book of Job a foremost position is assigned in the Septuagint 
Version of the Hebrew Scriptures; its claims to a like place in the 
realm of mind are quite universally recognised. It enters the Hebrew 
Canon with the face of an alien ; its voice, however, is the voice of the 
sons of God. Born outside of the Israelitish fold, it is clad in the garb 
of a noinade ; but its language is true Archaic Hebrew. Its thoughts, 
experiences, and trials, are representative in their character, and in a 
greater or less degree have been the common heritage of our race. In a 
significant sense, it is the experience-book of humanity. No one can 
read its pages without deep feelings of sympathy, for each one brings 
to their perusal a kindred experience. The author of the poem, how- 
ever, no more truly dwells apart upon the mount of song, unapproached 
by the most gifted geniuses of earth, than does, in like manner, its 
hero, apart in the valley of humiliation, a sufferer from temptations and 
discipline which unite to make him from among the Old Testament saints 
the most conspicuous herald and type of his divine and suffering Mas- 
ter. The hero of the work, and the work itself, answer one to the 
other in the character of uniqueness, and justify Hitzig in calling Job 
"a great creation." Its sublime conceptions and massive thoughts 
form a precious urn at which genius, in every age, has lighted its 
fires. Carlyle thus acknowledges these obligations: ''A noble book! 
all mens' book ! Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sub- 
lime sorrow, sublime reconciliation ; oldest choral melody as of the 
heart of manhood ; so soft and great as the summer midnight, as the 
world with its suns and stars. There is nothing written, I think, of 
equal literary merit." 

The Problem and Purport of the Work. 

The Book may be regarded as a Theodicy — a vindication of the moral 
government of God in its relations to men. It treats of evil concretely, 
and sets before us its unfolding through the experience of a man con- 
spicuous for piety. Its key-note is the question, Wherefore is evil? a 
question which is among the first to perplex, and the last to leave, the 
mind. Many stalwart minds have subsequently striven for its further 
solution — among whom the most eminent is Leibnitz, with his theory of 
Optimism — but have signally failed. The question stands where it stood 
at the close of this, the first and most elaborate of ancient theodicies. 
The idea of the work is simple and godlike; it is, to speak to man 
through man's experiences, making a human life the text — the greatest 
conceivable sufferings of a righteous being the lesson-leaf, from which 
shall be elucidated the deeper principles of the divine government. 
The consideration of the afflictions of the righteous carries with it the 

Vol. V. — 2 o. t. 



2 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 

possibly more impenetrable mystery — the prosperity of the wicked. 
This mystery comes out in bold relief in the discussion before us ; for 
the spectacle of a prostrate Job constantly suggests its contrary — that 
of the triumphant sinner. The author of the work looks boldly into 
both of these excrescences of evil — the suffering of the righteous and 
the prosperity of the wicked — and shows that they are consistent with 
a regime of righteousness, wisdom, and love. 

Extreme suffering, exasperated by unsympathetic bitterness of de- 
bate, goads the hero of our book to the utterances of passionate doubt, 
defiant summons of God to judgment, and aspersions upon the divine 
goodness, which Hengstenberg does not scruple to call blasphemies for 
which little justification can be offered. The trial lays bare a human 
heart as nowhere else in the Scriptures. With a like shudder to that 
with which Dante looked down into depths his own imagination had 
evoked, do we look into these real seething fires of passion and doubt. 
At last they burn themselves out, and disclose Job penitent in the ashes, 
bewailing the vileness and weakness of his nature, and exhibiting the 
noblest traits of incorruptible integrity. We rejoice in the issue of the 
trial, for it forever relieves human nature from the aspersion cast upon 
it by the foe of man, that man serves his God solely as a hireling. 

There underlies the discussion an ancient theory of rewards and pun- 
ishments which antedates the days of Moses, and was common to the 
ancient world, and, therefore, should hardly have been christened the 
Mosaic theory: moreover, the book is confessedly written outside of 
Israel, and there does not appear upon its pages any undisputed refer- 
ence to Mosaic law (Thorah) or Mosaic institutions. The refutation 
of this theory of retributive justice, Hirtzel, Umbreit, De Wette, and 
Renan conceive to be the chief object of the book. On the contrary, 
the treatment of this topic is but as a side issue, and is not a polemic 
against any supposed principle of Mosaism. All the speakers agree 
in the fact that wickedness is punished and virtue rewarded in this 
world. This furnishes an adequate basis for the dogma of a future 
adjustment of life's ills, and, resolutely kept before the mind of Job, 
(xix, 25-27,) eminently contributes to the restoration of complete faith 
in God. From the moment of the sublime inscription upon the ever- 
lasting rock, the heaving fires begin to subside. Throughout the re- 
mainder of the debate the chiseled words of undying faith are ever 
before the eye, like the flag of a beleagured fortress. They occasion 
little remark on the part of the codisputants, because they could be 
reached only by the demolition of outlying fortifications. (See note 
on chapter xx, 4.) 

Equally one-sided and unsatisfying is the view of Schlottman, Heng- 
stenberg, Canon Cook, and A. B. Davidson, who regard the main object 
of the work to be the test of human virtue by subjecting it to the most 
fiery temptations ; as well as the theory of Stuhlmann, Hupfeld, Merx, 
and Rodman, that the book is designed to rebuke all disposition to 
arraign the purposes and dealings of Providence, and to teach uncon- 
ditional submission to the divine will. The more gratifying and sub- 
lime view of Ewald, that the work proposes the solution of life's ills 
through the disclosure of immortal life, and the certainty that spirit is 
eternal, magnifies a secondary consideration into a primary object. 
To teach these, or doctrines kindred to these as seen in the views of 



INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 3 

others, is not the chief aim of the book ; they are embraced within, and 
germane to, the broader view accepted and defended by Bunscn (God 
in History, i, 182) and Hitzig, (Einleitnng, xxiii,) that the book is essen- 
tially a theodicy ; but not unfolded, as the latter would maintain, " from 
the standpoint of the Hebraic religion, on whose outer limits Koheleth 
plants himself." On the contrary, the Book of Job springs from the 
heart of the patriarchal religion, which for ages was the only true re- 
ligion of the world. In common with an Abraham and a Melchisedek, 
Job was a Gentile, whose soul had been moulded within no narrow 
limits of Sinai or its local institutions. His awful stragglings with 
doubt, his wavering but finally triumphant faith in Deity, his solemn 
appeals to the Godhead for vindication and relief, the forecasting of 
his soul for an incarnation of a Divine Helper and a future filling out 
of the present life, belong toman as man, and have in them a universal- 
ity of need and hope out of which sprang the priesthood whose in- 
signia he bore — an "order," a "similitude," after which finally "ariseth 
another Priest," the one Great High Priest of our race. (Heb. v, 6; 
vii, 15.) The Book of Job, more than any other book of the Hebrew 
Scriptures, is a gospel, and, of all those Scriptures, most strikingly antic- 
ipates the mission and teaching of Christ. Under the increased light of 
modern exegesis it shines more brightly than ever before with precious 
evangelical doctrine. Its twofold culmination in the sublime inscrip- 
tion of faith and hope, (xix, 25-27,) and in " the heart-power of God " as 
the infinite solvent of life's ills, (xxxvi, 5,) furnishes a twofold vincu- 
lum, binding the promise of the Garden with its fulfilment on the Cross. 
"The highest and immovable resting-point of Job's faith is that of 
the Gospel, although without that full recognition of God's eternal 
love for man which the Gospel brings. Philosophically, it is the 
ground taken by the German philosophers from Leibnitz to Hegel, 
though without their dialectic formularization." — Bunsen, ibid., i, 185. 
Fundamental truths which, after the lapse of ages, Christ "brought 
into light," ((puriaac, 2 Tim. i, 10,) are here in embryo. This book 
is an expansion of the primeval promise ; its pages contain the essen- 
tial features of the revelation first given to man. 

The Historical Reality of the Book. 

An extreme view has been held by some of the ablest commentators, 
(Maimonides, Bosenmuller, Hengstenberg, Merx,) that the book has no 
historic basis. They assign the entire work to the sphere of the imag- 
ination, to which belong the parables and the allegories of the Bible. 
Of such an estimate of Job, it has been observed by Ewald, (pp. 15, 16,) 
with whom Dillmann agrees, that " the invention of a history from the 
very commencement, the production from the poet's own brain of a 
person who is yet said to be historical, is a thing so forced and so re- 
mote that it is altogether foreign to the early period of every nation, 
so that it first takes shape gradually in the latest centuries of an an- 
cient history, and has never come fully and prominently forward till 
recent times." Against the allegorical hypothesis it may be also urged, 
that it does not accord with the subsequent scriptural recognitions of 
Job in Ezek. xiv, 14, 20, James v, 11, in the latter of which it is im- 
possible that an imaginary being should have been set forth by the 



4 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 

Spirit ns an example of patience ; that it is inconsistent with the work 
itself, for its substratum has the ring which belongs to the real; and 
that it is alien not only to the age in which such an allegory must have 
been written, but to any of the periods to which it has been assigned. 

The theory now* generally accepted by critics, (with the exception, 
however, of such scholars as Schultens, Dr. Lee, Carey, Bishop "Words- 
worth, Dr. A. Clarke, Tayler Lewis, etc., who maintain the reality of 
the whole work,) and almost unanimously by recent German commen- 
tators, is, that the work unites the historical and the ideal. By these it is 
regarded as a splendid creation of genius resting upon a foundation of 
fact. The real and the ideal are so fused together that it is difficult 
(impossible, say some) to distinguish the one from the other. ' ' The his- 
tory is not all fact, " says Davidson, ' ' much of it is poetry ; the poetry is 
not allegory, much of it is fact." — Fairbairn's Bib. Dictionary, i, 919. 

The modern theory, if we may rely upon Keil, (Introd. to Old Testa- 
ment, i, 485, 486,) holds the book to be " an old legend wrought up 
and sustained throughout with poetic freedom;" and this is the opin- 
ion, he says, " of all recent critics and expositors. " Both the theories 
under consideration certainly belong to comparatively modern times ; 
for Jewish rabbins, the fathers of the Church, together with the older 
theologians, held to the strict historical character of the work. 

Of the various reasons given for this modern theory we shall be able 
to consider only the more important : — 

1. The artistic and unnatural part assigned to Satan. — With respect 
to this, it may be sufficient here to reply, that a close examination of 
the historical accounts of the temptation of Eve, which took place 
through the serpent, and that, too, in the garden of Eden, will dis- 
close features of striking resemblance to the Satanology of Job. See 
Excursus I, II, and p. 289. 

2. The mechanical look of the round and sacred numbers of the prose 
portions of the work. — It may be rejoined that round numbers are com- 
monly, indeed almost invariably, used in the Scriptures. Compare 
2 Chron. xxxv, 7-9 ; 1 Chron. v, 21 ; Num. xxxi, 32-34, etc. In the 
first two citations we have multiples similar to those in Job: for in- 
stance, exactly ten times as many sheep as bullocks, five times as many 
sheep as camels, and twenty -five times as many camels as asses, etc. 
The sacred numbers appear frequently in the statistics of the Bible. 
Job's 7,000 sheep and seven sons may be paralleled with the 7,000 who 
did not bow the knee to Baal, (1 Kings xix, 18;) the 7,000 who con- 
quered the Syrians, (1 Kings xx, 15;) and the 7,000 carried captive to 
Babylon, (2 Kings xxiv, 16.) Comp. 1 Chron. xii, 25 ; xviii, 4 ; xix, 18, 
etc. For the use of 3,000, see Judges xv, 11; 1 Sam. xiii, 2; xxv, 2, 
etc. ; and 1 Kings iv, 32, in which mention is made of 3,000 proverbs, 
which were spoken by Solomon. That the employment of the sacred 
numbers does not imply artificial structure may be further illustrated 
in the account of the deluge. Clean beasts were taken into the ark 
by sevens, the fowls of the air also by sevens ; the pause before the 
deluge began lasted seven days; the ark rested in the seventh month, 
and Noah stayed seven days before he sent forth the dove a second 
time. Three sons with their three wives were saved in the ark; the 
human race was saved by fours. (Concerning the seven days of mourn- 
ing with Job, see note on ii, 13.) 



INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 5 

3. The highly artistic structure of the book. — k, The book," it is urged, 
"falls into three divisions, namely: the prologue, the discourses, and 
the epilogue. The prologue and epilogue, again, contain each three 
principal points; and the discourses fall into three divisions — those of 
Job and his three friends, those of Elihu, and those of Jehovah. The 
dialogues consist of three courses, and each course consists of thrice two 
speeches. Finally, in the discourses of Elihu, and in those of Jehovah, 
we can again distinguish three principal parts." — Roster, ITiob., p. 5. 
Courtesy — the laws of which nowhere in the world are more perfect 
than in the East — w T ould require that an opportunity should be given 
to each of the three speakers, in their order, to make reply to Job. In 
the plausible analysis just given no estimate is taken of the two " heav- 
enly cabinets ;" the four messengers of misfortune ; the six tempta- 
tions, (thus Delitzsch ;) the one lamentation ; the one monologue ; the 
four speeches of Elihu; the two replies of Job to Deity; and the one 

divine address to Eliphaz and his friends. Moreover, for the comple- 
tion of the third triad Job and his three friends are constructed into 
one, and in the fourth no account is taken of the failure of Zophar. 

4. The argument we are considering presents a more serious phase 
in the profound thought of the jyoem, with its highly poetical mode 
of expression. Such speeches as those of Job and his friends do not 
belong to debate, though among giant minds. No chance gathering 
anywhere in the world could have brought together four such minds 
as these must have been who communed with stricken Job. The par- 
allelisms, the supposed strophic arrangements, the dramatic evolution 
of a plan wdiich embraces, not only the thought, but the actors them- 
selves, the perfection of skill all the speakers display in the structure 
and adornment of their discourses, to say nothing of the exquisite 
dove-tailing of one speech with another, are beyond the power of 
any extempore address. Such is the purport of this, the most im- 
portant of the arguments, to which we have endeavoured to give 
its fullest force. It is to be borne in mind that the Oriental mind 
is highly poetical. It associates directly and constantly with na- 
ture, which with the Oriental never loses its freshness and life. 
From habitual observation and reflection the mind becomes stored 
with images and compacted thought. For the preservation of such 
thought in the form of apothegms, or eyen of long poems, as in the 
Woltian theory of the Iliad, memory takes the place of books. The 
Oriental has always been master of the art of improvisation; the 
Arabs — as Schultens, a competent judge, affirms — have a wonderful fa- 
cility for extemporaneous effusions in verse. Dr. Kitto. who cites in 
illustration the Romance of Antar, remarks: "Nothing is more remark- 
able among the Semitic nations of Western Asia, even at this day, 
than the readiness of their resources, the prevalence of the poetical 
imagination and form of expression, and the facility with which the 
nature of this group of languages allows all high and animated dis- 
course to fall into rhythmical forms of expression; while the language, 
even of common life ami thought, is replete with poetical sentimeuts 
and ideas." See further, Kitto's Daily Bib. Illus., in he. 

Then, too, there may have been a considerable interval of time be- 
tween the addresses. From evidences in the work itself, the interview 
extended through a long period. (See note on chap, xlii, 10.) Seven 



6 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 

days of silence preceded its commencement. There are indications 
which lead some to the opinion that at times the debate was suspended. 
(See note on xxiii, 2.) With the Oriental, time is of comparatively 
little moment, even at the present day; of much less value was it when 
life was measured by the century. These visitors, being men of rank, 
were masters of their time. It would not be extravagant to suppose 
that the intervals spoken of may have been devoted to the consideiation 
and preparation of the reply. Admit so simple a theory as this, and 
a mountainous difficulty is much lessened, if not removed. 

In reply it may be further remarked — 1. That all theories concerning 
the booh are fraught with embarrassments. — Quite as serious difficulties 
may be pressed upon those who deny, as upon those who affirm, the 
strictly historical character of the book. This is evident from the 
confusion of view among the critics of our age as to where they will 
drive the ploughshare through the work, separating the real from the 
ideal. No two agree upon the breadth of historical basis, or upon 
the invention of the so-called poet or poets, whose task it was to rein- 
vest with Hie the traditions ot the past. 

2. That the portions supposed to have been invented are introduced with 
credentials of truth similar to those which mark the portions generally 
admitted to be real. — Of the former. the theophany is foremost in sig- 
nificance. No greater strength of asseverance belongs to the open- 
ing declaration, " There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was 
Job," than to the declaration, "Then the Lord answered Job out of the 
whirlwind." No indication is given that Jehovah's address to Job is 
a mere chimera of some unknown poet's brain; no indication that 
while Job may have uttered the sublime language of resignation in the 
prologue, (chap, i, 21,) that God did not utter the most wondrous 
challenge ever given to man, (xl, 7-14.) The epilogue is generally 
assumed to be true history. What greater reason is there for re- 
garding as true Job's answer, " I know that thou canst do every thing, " 
(xlii, 2,) than his response in the midst of Jehovah's addresses, "Be- 
hold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee?" (xl, 4.) To introduce 
Jehovah as a speaker in an imaginary colloquy, and to put language 
into his mouth which he never uttered, is not only without parallel iu 
the Scriptures, but would have shocked a true Hebrew, and been suf- 
ficient to exclude the w r ork from the canon. See page 231. 

3. That the fusion theory makes requisitions which are hardly in keep- 
ing with the general theory of a divine revelation. — It confessedly makes of 
the author what may be called a trimmer. The most recent German 
writers virtually acknowledge this. The circumstances of the history are 
assumed to have taken place some eight, ten, or twelve centuries before 
the book called Job was written. The task the author takes upon 
himself is, to make the work conform to the life, customs, and manners 
of such a remote period ; from within Israel to w r rite outside of Israel ; 
himself breathing the spirit of Judaism, to prevent the intrusion of 
its spirit, its laws, and its institutions. He must avoid all historical 
events of the intervening centuries, guard against anachronisms, of 
which even so skilful a writer as Sir Walter Scott was guilty when he 
also planted the scene of his work in a distant age. To such an 
extent was this spirit of watchfulness carried, that, according to Ewald, 
(page 57,) the w 7 ord Jehovah was eschewed in the debate, in the wide 



INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 7 

ranee of illustrations, drawn from nature and art, there is not one 
which has not been subjected to a strict ordeal. German commenta- 
tors dwell upon the exquisite skill with which the poet has discharged 
his task. (Dillmanu, xxi, xxii ; Zschokke, xvi; Zockler, page 234.) 
Canon Cook justly observes, (Speaker 's Com., p. 9,) "It should be borne 
in mind that no ancient writer ever succeeded in reproducing the man- 
ners of a past age, or in avoiding allusion to those of his own; this is 
true even of the Greek dramatists, and, indeed, of writers of every 
country and age before the eighteenth century. The attempt was not 
even made. To use M. Renan's words, ' antiquity had not an idea of what 
w T e call local colouring.' " Renan plants himself against the German 
idea, and denies that " at a remote epoch a Hebrew should have en- 
tertained the singular idea of composing a patriarchal poem, and dis- 
played such perfection in the design that his work does not strike a 
single discordant note, nor in a single place betray the artificial sys- 
tem which has presided over its composition." — Etude, etc., xviii, xix. 

4. That the arguments which have been considered fail, in that they ig- 
nore or deny for the Booh of Job a possible substratum of the miraculous. — 
They are really akin to the reasoning of Hengstenberg, (Kitto, Cyc, 
ii, 608:) "God's speaking out of the clouds would be a miracle, 
without an object corresponding to its magnitude, and having a merely 
personal reference, while all the other miracles of the Old Testament 
are in connexion with the theocratical government, and occur in the 
midst, and for the benefit of, the people of God." This citation loses 
its force when once it is admitted that one Gentile, (Job,) as well as 
another Gentile, (Abraham, Gen. xii, 1,) might be visited with a mes- 
sage of mercy, and that God might address the one upon the clearing 
up of a storm, or from out of the whirlwind even, as properly as the 
other through "a horror of great darkness." Gen. xv, 12. The fact 
that the book is in the canon gives it the same rights, immunities, and 
laws with the rest of the Bible. The same general principles are to be 
employed in its interpretation. Certainly, there is nothing more ques- 
tionable in the exact doubling of the sheep, camels, oxen, and she-asses, 
than in the feeding of a multitude with '-'seven loaves and the fishes," 
and the final taking up of exactly seven baskets full. If the latter is 
accounted for on the ground that it was miraculous, why may not the 
former? If the historical reality of the work is affected by the exact 
correspondence in the former case, why not in the latter in the repro- 
duction of the sacred number, seven? As worthy an occasion exists 
for the miraculous in the doubling of Job's possessions as in the mul- 
tiplying of the bread. (See note on chap, xlii, 12.) No less enlarged 
lessons of faith, hope, and charity may be gathered from the piety of Job, 
outside of "the theocratical government," "for the benefit of the people 
of God," than from the miraculous calling of Abraham into "connexion 
with the theocratical government." 

The leading features of the book of Job find a parallel in early Bible 
history: its doctrine of Satanology in that of the garden; the trial 
of Job in that of Abraham; and the theophany in those made to the 
patriarchs, and even that to an Egyptian king, Abimelech. The author 
of the following work holds the hook of Job to be strictly historical. 
The great debate, he conceives, took place as described ; its argu- 
ments and illustrations were substantially as they have been trans- 



8 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 

mitted to us ; but whether in poetical form may still be an open ques- 
tion. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the author of the Book of 
Job may have listened to the discussion, and been assisted in its tran- 
scription by the same eternal Spirit who in after ages brought to the 
remembrance of the evangelists the words of Christ. John xiy, 26. 

The Name and Residence of Job, and the Age in which he Lived. 

(For name, see page 14 ; for residence, see page 13.) The time in which 
Job lived. — Most critics of the present age unite in ascribing to Job 
a very remote antiquity. According to the greater number (Lowth, 
Umbreit, Zockler, Lee, Carey, etc.) he lived, oris represented as living, 
in patriarchal times; others (as Wordsworth,) make him a contempo- 
rary of Moses. Some few assign him to the age of Solomon, and some, 
even to the times of Ezra. That Job lived in patriarchal times, at least 
prior to the age of Moses, may be argued in general from the resem- 
blance of the customs and manners portrayed in the book to those appear- 
ing in Genesis. Also the names, the lineage, and the countries of all the 
personages mentioned in the work link themselves with the times of the 
patriarchs. (See notes on chap, i, 1 ; ii, 11 ; and xxxii, 2.) Great length of 
life is assumed to be characteristic of the Jobean period. (Chap, xv, 10 ; 
note on xlii, 16.) Job's riches, like those of Abraham, lay in his flocks 
and herds, and were in other respects similar. (See note i, 3.) The sacri- 
fices consisted of burnt offerings, which the head of the family offered 
rather than an oflicial priest : (see notes on i, 5, and xlii, 8 :) the musical 
instruments, and even the money mentioned, are the same as those of the 
patriarchal age: (see notes xxi, 12, and xlii, 11:) the mode of writing 
and sculpture spoken of are, unquestionably, pre-Mosaic: (note,xix,23:) 
and the idolatry incidentally alluded to is the most ancient of idola- 
tries, and yet at that time seems to have been an innovation, since it 
was liable to punishment. (Note on xxxi, 26, 27.) Without further 
specification of particulars, a very remote period may be argued from 
the admission of the book into the canon. Reasoning from a human 
standpoint, this could hardly have taken place unless Job had lived 
prior to the law. The rigid exclusiveness of the Mosaical dispensa- 
tion would not have brooked the idea that after its establishment any 
human being could attain to the piety of Job outside of the Mosaic 
fold. The Jew would need no enlightenment to see that a co-existing 
religion, capable of producing such fruit, rich and ripe with the divine 
approval, practically questioned the necessity of liturgical religion, 
nay, the very being of Mosaism itself. And just as readily would he 
admit that a religion which produced an Abraham and a Melchisedek 
might culminate in a Job. See Carey, Commentary on Job, p. 16. 

The Time when the Book of Job was Written. 

The eras fixed upon by leading scholars for the production of the 
Book of Job, are (1) the Babylonish exile; (2) the Assyrian invasion; 
(3) the Daviclic-Solomonic age — the so-called Augustan age of Hebrew 
literature; (4) the Mosaic; and (5) the Patriarchal. To the first of 
these periods, (about 588 B.C..) notwithstanding it has the strong 
endorsement of Gesenius, Umbreit, and De Wette, it may be objected 
that the book is cited by Bible writers who livid anterior to the 



INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 9 

period of captivity ; that the works of that age are marked by a class 
of Chaldaisms from which Job is free; and stamped by lt a rigid 
Mosaism, and an exalted devotion and patriotism," (Kenan,) which 
would be incompatible with a book like that of Job. In the lan- 
guage of Eichhorn, kk Let him who is fit for such researches only read 
a writing tainted with Aramaisms, and next the Book of Job ; they 
will be found as diverging as east and west." But so little is so late a 
period as this worthy of serious consideration, that Kenan affirms that 
there is not now a single Hebraist who does not place the composition 
of the work at least a hundred years before the Captivity. (Etude, xxxvii.) 

Ewald, Merx, and Hitzig, find in the catastrophe which befell Is- 
rael (720 B.C.) the calamitous soil out of which sprang Job, a national 
work for the consolation of stricken Israel. Renan makes the author 
a contemporary of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, towards 770 B. C. The 
strongest arguments for this period (that of the Assyrian invasion) are 
also made use of in favour of the Solomonic era of authorship, an era 
preferred by Schlottmann, Keil, Delitzsch, and Davidson. They are 
substantially twofold — the points of coincidence between Job and the 
writers of their respective periods, and its philosophico character. With 
one class of critics a late period is assigned for the author because he 
borrows his thoughts from preceding or contemporary writers ; with an- 
other class of critics an earlier period is found because later writers bor- 
rowed from him. Wondrous criticism to accomplish such diverse results! 

The book, also, is claimed to be a production of the Israelitish Hhok- 
mah — a school of thought which reached its maturity in the times of 
Solomon. The argument assumes that the thought, or the chief current 
of thought of a scriptural work — at least of Job — must have its well- 
spring in the age in which it was written. In other words, the prev- 
alent school of thought determines the bard and his work. Magnif- 
icent tributes to Wisdom, (Hhokmah,) peculiar eschatological ideas or 
words, are found, for instance, in the Proverbs, and a deep melancholic 
view of thought characterizes, say, the-Ecclesiastes, (Koheleth,) or his 
times, and the conclusion is drawn that any other works with like char- 
acteristics must take their rise out of the same soil. The theory of 
inspiration which underlies this and kindred reasoning can be com- 
pounded in no other proportion than as a minimum of the divine and 
a maximum of the human. The argument, when reduced to its essence, 
practically denies the inspiration of the work. Job is vastly in ad- 
vance of any age before Christ to which he can be assigned. Jewish 
literature has nothing to compare with it. No age of literature, as 
such, w T as equal to its production. For aught that can be shown, the 
patriarchal age carried within itself no less potency for such a work 
than the Solomonic. And yet the objection is urged, that so massive and 
mature a work does not comport with the dawn of a people's civiliza- 
tion. On the contrary, in solitary grandeur Homer and Dante arise 
respectively out of the twilight of Grecian and Italian civilization, and 
bear witness that the dawn also is the natal hour of genius. Unques- 
tionably, civilizations had flourished and decayed before Job came upon 
the scene. The citations he makes from lost literatures do no discredit 
to his work. And if so it indeed be that genius needs stimulus, it is 
plain it was not wanting to Job. 

This leads us to remark that stronger reasons than for any subse- 



10 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 

quent period, we think, can be adduced for the pre-Mosaic origin of 
the Book of Job, (Stuhlmann, Bertholdt, Eichhorn,) or at least for its 
production prior to the giving of the law; thus J. D. Michaelis, 
Ebrard, Stier, Cowles, and Canon Cook, of whom all but the last re- 
gard Moses as its author. For this statement we assign the following 
reasons : — 

1. The knowledge of religious subjects displayed in the Book of Job 
is in perfect accord with that of the earliest records of the Bible. The 
views it takes of God, of man, the doctrine of retribution, the Messiah, 
and even of Satan himself, together with eschatology in general, breathe 
the spirit of the patriarchal rather than that of any other period of 
the Israelitish history. The leading facts of Genesis, such as the fall, 
(xxxi, 33,) the deluge, (xxii, 16,) and the doom of Sodom, (xviii, 15-21,) 
are alluded to, while no allusion is made to patent facts in the same line 
of illustration transpiring after the giving of the law. As will appear 
in the progress of this work, the early ages were radiant with religious 
light. The modern and trivial objection that the Book of Job sheds too 
much light on religious subjects to have been written before Moses, is 
now scouted by proofs which tomb and temple, parchment rolls and 
clay tablets, long lost libraries and the mouldering ruins of the past, 
hold forth to the astonished gaze of the present age. 

2. More remarkable, and as yet otherwise unaccounted for, is the fact 
that Mosaism and its institutions are nowhere referred to in the work. 
The criticism of the age admits its authorship by a Hebrew. The 
linguistic argument makes this undeniable. An ordinary view of the 
case would pronounce the writing of a lengthy treatise on a religious 
subject by a Jew of the ancient school, which should nowhere display 
a trace of Judaism, a moral impossibility. It may be questioned 
whether even Lord Beaconsfield could write a political novel without 
somewhere disclosing his Jewish extraction. See page 8. 

3. The linguistic features of the poem identify it with the earlier 
rather than with the later periods of the Hebrew language. These 
features are twofold — its Arabisms and its Aramaisms. In respect to 
these, the argument lies in a nutshell — the Arabisms do point to a 
comparatively early time ; the Aramaisms may indicate a late period 
for the writing of the work. The Hebrew language is pre-eminently 
distinguished for its fixedness. So competent a judge as Julius Fiirst 
remarks: "As a whole it (the Hebrew language) shows so great sta- 
bility andunchangeableness — such a stamp of uniformity — that after the 
period of antiquity no essential modification of it, such as is found in 
the Indo-European languages, can be recognised." So marked is this 
uniformity, that Movers went so far as to maintain that a single hand 
retouched almost all the writings of the Hebrew canon, in order to re- 
duce them to a uniform language. (Cited by Renan, Hist. desLangues 
Semitiques, p. 111.) Such considerations lead critics who would assign 
the work to a later age, to depreciate the argument based upon its lan- 
guage. But the veriest tyro cannot fail to be impressed by the numerous 
archaisms of expression, and the many words which appear exclusively 
in Job. The key to their proper interpretation was unquestionably found 
by Schultens in the Arabic language. They yield solely to a solution 
which assumes that the work was written at a period when the sepa- 
ration of the Hebraic and Arabic dialects was taking place. The 



INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 11 

Arabic, richest of the Semitic dialects, lias preserved the words which 
the poorer Hebrew dialect sloughed off in the course of the ages. 

The Aramaisms alluded to are words of outside origin, supposed to 
be from the Chaldee and Syriac languages. The appearance of these 
in Job, upon the hypothesis even of its great antiquity, is no more 
than might have been expected from the considerations that all these 
dialects had probably one common origin ; that intertribal association 
was no less intimate in ancient than in subsequent times; and that 
similar Aramaisms are found in the song of Deborah and in the Pen- 
tateuch. Aramaisms appear for the most part in the poetical portions 
of the Scriptures, and were evidently employed for purposes of orna- 
ment and strength. The class appearing in Job and the Pentateuch 
differ essentially from later Aramaisms, when the Chaldee and Syriac 
languages became degenerate and corrupt, and ''thereby prove the an- 
tiquity and originality of the Book of Job." (See Havernick, "Intro- 
duction to Old Testament," pp. 176, 177.) 

4. The style of Job is that of the most ancient fragments of poetry 
— concise, rugged, and abrupt. Its main feature is its parallelism of 
members, or its thought-rhythm, an expressive term given by conti- 
nental writers. Ewald calls it ''the echo of the whole sense, where the 
same sense, which has been poured forth as a complete proposition in 
the first member, mounts up again in the second in order to exhaust 
itself more thoroughly." This, he says, makes "the most powerful 
and beautiful concord." With variations of form, parallelism of mem- 
bers is common to all Hebrew poetry. The objection that the book 
of Job could not spring from a patriarchal or pre-Mosaic age because 
of its poetical structure may be met by an examination of the oldest 
song extant — the song of Lamech, Gen. iv, 23. This will show a struc- 
ture no less artistic and elaborate than that of Job. Herder (Hebrew 
Poetry, i, 264,) points out a similar parallelism of members, and even a 
designed assonance. The first four lines end in the same way, in Yodh 
resting in Hhirik, and thus make a semi-rhyme. Even admit the 
strophic arrangement of Job — concerning the extent and even the ex- 
istence of which critics are still divided, but which is adopted in the 
ensuing analysis of Job for convenience' sake — and you have a style 
in no respect more artificial than that of Lamech, whose antiquity even 
the iconoclast Ewald admits to be very great. 

As respects the authorship of the work, the most considerable claim- 
ants are Job himself, (who of all, unquestionably possessed the great- 
est capabilities,) Elihu, Moses, Heman the Ezrahite, Solomon or some 
one of his court, and Hezekiah. Hebrew traditions attribute it to 
Moses. Hirtzel and Hitzig agree in thinking that its author must 
"have been a Hebrew and have lived in Egypt. The doubts which 
embarrass the question of the time of the writing of the poem are 
such as to render unprofitable any prolonged consideration of the 
more difficult question concerning its author. 

The Integrity of the Book. 

The critical spirit of the present age has chosen four portions of 
the book for its assaults. The less weight is to be accorded to these 
assaults because of the fact that the most critical minds of the skepti- 



12 INTRODUCTION TO TEE BOOK OF JOB. 

cal class antagonize one the other to such an extent that their criti- 
cisms prove mutually destructive. It is alleged that the prose por- 
tions have been added subsequently to the production of the main 
part of the work, the so-called "poetical kernel. 1 ' Objections are 
also made against other portions, to wit: the passage in chap, xxvii, 
11-23, on the ground that Job contravenes his own views, (see p. 172;) 
as well as against the discourses of Elihu and the Behemoth section, 
both of which, criticism urges, are unworthy of the master spirit which 
produced Job. (See Excursus vi, pp. 196-198, and Excursus viii, pp. 
280, 281.) But, as will be readily remarked, objectors against Job 
proceed upon the hypothesis that the book, as a whole, is artificial, 
a theory which has already been sufficiently considered. These ob- 
jections have been so often refuted (see especially Hahn's Hiob, pp. 
10-22) that we shall content ourselves with remarking that the removal 
of either of these larger portions would prove a palpable mutilation. 
Take, for instance, from the work its prologue and epilogue, and there 
remains, to use the figure of Delitzsch, the trunk of a statue, evidential 
indeed of thought, nay of genius, but without head or feet. 

Exegetical Works. 

The following are the editions of the most important of the com- 
mentaries referred to: — 

Carey, C. P. The Book of Job. London, 1858. 

Clarke, Dr. Adam. (New edition.) New York, 1844. 

Conant, Dr. T. J. The Book of Job. New York, 1856. 

Cook, Canon F. C, in the Speaker's Commentary. New York, 1874. 

Davidson, A. B. Commentary on the Book of Job. Vol. I. Edinburgh, 1862. 

Delitzsch, F. Bible Commentary on the Book of Job. Two vols. Edinburgh, 1866. 

Dillmann, Aug. Hiob. Leipzig, 1869. 

Ewald, Heinrich. Das Buch Ijob. Gottingen, 1854. 

Good, John Mason, M. D., F. E. S. Book of Job. London, 1812. 

Harm, H. A. Commentar uber das Buch Hiob. Berlin, 1850. 

Hengstenberg, C. W. Das Buch Hiob. Erster Theil. Berlin, 1870. 
" " " " Zweiter Theil. Leipzig, 1875. 

Hirtzel, Ludwig. Hiob. Durchgesehen von Olshausen. Leipzig, 1852. 

Hitzig, Ferdinand. Das Buch Hiob. Leipzig, 1874. 

Lewis, Dr. Tayler, in Lange's Commentary. Dr. Philip Schaff, Editor. New 
York, 1874. 

Noyes, Dr. G. K. New Translation of Book of Job. Boston, 1861. 

Eenan, Ernst. Le Livre de Job. Paris, 1864. 

Scott, Thomas. Book of Job, in English Verse. London, 1773. 

Schultens, Albert. Liber Jobi. Two volumes. Lugd. Bat. 1737. 

Zockler, Otto, in Lange's Commentary. Dr. Philip Schaff, Editor. New 
York, 1874. 

Umbreit, F. W. C. Book of Job. Two volumes. Edinburgh, 1836. 

Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher. Book of Job. London, 1867. 

The commentaries of Barnes, Wemyss, Dr. Samuel Lee, Drusius, Samuel Wesley, 
Chappelow, Corderus, Peters, Grotius, Stickel, Zschokke, (Roman Catholic Com- 
mentary, 1875,) Andrea, Dachsel, Eichhorn, Heiligstedt in Maurer, and Spanheim, 
as well as others, have also been more or less consulted. 



THE 



BOOK OF JOB 



T 



CHAPTER I. 

HERE was a man a in the land of 



a Gen. 22. 20, 21. b Ezek. 14. 14; James 5. 11. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 

PROLOGUE— Chaps. I, II. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Piety axd Prosperity of Job, 
i, 1-5. 
1. There was a man — These first 
words point to an historical basis for 
the ensuing work. Job bears the noble 
title of K^X, man, in contradistinction 

to D1X, Psalm xlix, 2 ; Isaiah ii, 9, etc. 

T T 

A similar distinction occurs in Latin 
between vir and homo; in Greek be- 
tween avr/p and uvdpunoq. In our own 
language man — from the Sanscrit manu, 
originally a thinker, (mana, "to think,") 
— is, like tj^tf of the text, an honoura- 
ble designation. " Human beings," says 
Herodotus, "are many, but men are 
few." Ezekiel (xiv, 14, 20) ranks Job, 
with Noah and Daniel, as highest types 
of our race. The land of Uz — So 
called, probably, from Uz, a son of 
Dishan, (Gen. xxxvi, 28,) and grandson 
of Seir. The translation of the word 
Uz by the Septuagint into AvaLrig, Au- 
sitis, has led some, on account of a sup- 
posed resemblance to the word Alclrai, 
^Esitae, the name of a tribe mentioned 
by Ptolemy, (Geogr., v, 19,) and living 
in the Arabian desert west from Baby- 
lon, to fix upon the neighbourhood of 
Babylonia as the home of the patriarch. 
But little reliance, however, can bo 
placed upon this fanciful philology, and 
as little upon Moslem traditions, which 



Uz, whose name was b Job ; and that 
man was c perfect and upright, and one 



cGen. 6. 9; 17. 1; chap. 2. 3. 



induce others to look for the country of 
Job in the Hauran, (Delitzsch,) or East 
Hauran, (Zockler,) a province east of 
the Jordan, and stretching southward 
from Damascus, being a part of the an- 
cient kingdom of Bashan. The recent 
commentator Hitzig, after a long and 
laboured but unsatisfactory argument, 
based upon ancient idolatrous worship, 
locates Uz in the hill district of Tulul, 
which upon the west is bounded by the 
mountain range of Hauran. 

We rather accord with the ancient 
opinion, according to which Uz lay in 
the northern part of Arabia, and, com- 
prehending Edom, (as intimated in Lam. 
iv, 21,) extended toward the Euphra- 
tes, for the most part corresponding to 
the Arabia Petraea of classical geogra- 
phy. In support of this we may note, 
— 1 . That Job was the greatest of 
all the men of the East; that is, of 
the bene Kedem, one of the nations 
of Arabia. "The sons of the East." 
says Gesenius, {Thesaurus, page 1193,) 
" are the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta, 
which extends from the east of Pales- 
tine to the Euphrates." (See note on 
verse 3.) The Scriptures help us in de- 
termining their residence, for we learn 
from Gen. xxv, 4, 6, that Abraham sent 
among others the sons of Midian " east- 
ward unto the east country;" and from 
Judges vi, 3, that subsequently the Mid- 
ianites and the Amalekites were in con- 
federacy with " the children of the 
East; " and from Isa. xi, 14, that God 
linked "them of the East" with Edom, 
and Moab, and the children of Amnion, 
in one common though dissimilar doom. 



14 



JOB. 



From the remarkable association of 
these nations with " the children of the 
East " in these and similar passages, we 
are justified in concluding that Job 
must have lived somewhere between 
Egypt and the Euphrates, and to the 
south or south-east of Palestine. 2. The 
sole scriptures, other than that of our 
text, that speak, of Uz as a country, 
associate it with Edom, (Lam. iv, 21, 
and Jer. xxv, 20,) though, in the latter 
case other nations are also mentioned. 
The latter of these passages does not 
conflict with the conclusion from the 
former, that Uz was the more extensive 
country and included Edom. Then, too, 
the grandson of Seir the Horite, whose 
descendants dwelt in Edom, was called 
Uz. (Gen. xxxvi, 20, 21, 28, 30,31.) As 
the neighbouring mountains received 
and transmitted the name of the grand- 
parent, Seir, it stands in reason that the 
country of Edom should take the name 
of the grandson, Uz, though subse- 
quently displaced by the name of Edom, 
(Idumea.) This view is' strengthened 
by Deut. ii, 12, " The Horim also dwelt 
in Seir bef oretime ; but the children of 
Esau succeeded them [margin, inherited 
them] when they had destroyed them," 
etc. The relatives of this Uz evident- 
ly dwelt in Seir and the adjacent coun- 
try, until driven out by the children of 
Esau. 3. This position agrees better 
with that of the countries where Job's 
friends lived than any other hypoth- 
esis; nor is the objection of its dis- 
tance from Chaldfeaa serious difficulty. 
(See note on verse 17.) It would also 
account for the great knowledge of 
Egypt displayed by Job, since it also lay 
not far from one of the most ancient 
caravan routes, whose starting point 
was Egypt. It harmonizes, also, with 
the mention of Jordan in xl, 23, and of 
Canaanitish merchants in xli, 6. 4. If 
tradition be appealed to, the statement 
in the supplement to the Septuagint, on 
the authority of the Syriac Book, that 
Job " dwelt in the land of Ausis, (Uz.) 
on the borders of Idumea and Arabia," 
is worthy of quite as much considera- 
tion as the sites of monasteries, (J. G. 
Wetzstein,) or the fact that the sepul- 
chre of Job is also pointed out in the 
Hauran, since four other places also lay 



claim to his tomb. Whose name was 

Job — ji s N, iyyob. The origin of this 
name is 'exceedingly uncertain. The 
more general view is that of our older 
lexicographers, who rendered it perse- 
cuted, on the supposition that the word 
is a passive form of the verb 2>jx, ayab, 

to hate, or attack. A serious objection 
against such a derivation is, that the 
kittol form, in which the word is, has 
an active or a neuter signification," and 
exceedingly rarely a passive meaning, 
(such as, for instance, yillodh, born,) so 
that the probabilities would be quite as 
great that the word a iyob" would be 
rendered "persecutor" as "persecut- 
ed." The more plausible view is that 
which finds in the word the idea of peni- 
tence, although Zockler (in Lange) thinks 
that both views are equally admissible. 
On the hypothesis that the book is of 
great antiquity, we should be justified in 
seeking the origin of the word in the 
Arabic, as in those ancient times this 
language was closely allied to the He- 
brew, furnishing the latter language 
with many of its roots and archaic 
forms. The Arabic aba, to turn, return, 
is near akin to the Hebrew oub, (cog- 
nate with shoub,) signifying also to 
turn; thence as a noun, one who turns 
back (to God) or repents. This view is 
held by Eichhorn, Rosenm tiller, Ewald, 
Delitzsch, and Dillmann, among others. 
A somewhat similar name, 2V, Job, was 
borne by the third son of Issachar, 
Gen. xlvi, 13 ; and an Edomite king, 
Jobab, is spoken of in Gen. xxxvi, 33. 
This name corresponds with the Greek 
name of Job, as cited in the supplement 
to the Septuagint. Perfect and up- 
right — "i£*1 Qfi. These words express, 

as nearly as possible, the sense of the 
original. The Jewish idea, (for instance 
that of Rabbi Solomon, reappearing in 
Ewald and Henry,) that the perfection 
of Job consisted simply in " sincerity " 
or " innocency of heart," is incomplete, 
presenting but one side of a many-sided 
prism* The word "perfect," like the 
crystal of the prism, is generic, and con- 
templates the moral being as a whole, 
rather than in specific traits. Wher- 
ever this work of faith manifests itself, 
whether amid the mountains of Idumea 



CHAPTER I. 



15 



that "feared God, and eschewed evil, stance also was seven thousand sheep, 
2 And there were born unto him seven and three thousand camels, and five hun- 



aud three daughters. 3 His > sub- 



dProv. 8. 13; 16.6. 



or the distractions of camp-life, as with 
the two Roman centurions, or under 
Christ's direct disclosure of himself, 
as to a Saul of Tarsus, it is the work 
of God, deep, radical, and superin- 
duced upon the nature of man by the 
Spirit of God. This perfection was 
not inconsistent with intirmities, errors 
of judgment, and perhaps derelictions of 
the heart, as is exemplified in Job's own 
case ; for which, through accepted faith, 
the unknown mediation of Christ may 
as truly avail in behalf of a Job, as the 
known,avails for us. Thus saints may 
ripen for heaven in other folds than 
that of Israel or of Christendom, and 
the words of Peter be verified: "In 
every nation he that feareth Him, and 
worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
him.'' Acts x, 35. Job's perfection could 
not, more than ours, stand complete in 
the presence of the Absolute Perfection, 
and so needed, like ours, the mediation. 
2. Seven sons — The head of a large 
family has always been regarded in the 
East as pre-eminently happy. In the pa- 
triarchal age especially, a large progeny 
was a source of military strength, each 
son, as well as each bondman, being 
a possible soldier. Elements of pow- 
er, they, more than any other worldly 
gifts, entitled their possessor to distinc- 
tion and honour. " Happy is the man 
that hath* his quiver full of them." 
"They shall speak with the enemy in 
the gate." Hence "the young men" 
appear first in the enumeration of the 
blessings of Providence, even as in the 
series of terrible calamities their de- 
struction is the last climactic stroke. 
The number ten, as Hitzig and others 
have remarked, is here divided into 
seven and three, as well as in the follow- 
ing verse,. where the seven and three 
also appear together with the halves 
of ten. In other portions of the Bible, 
however, similar numerical relation- 
ships appear. (Comp. 1 Kings xvii, 21 
with 2 Kings iv, 35 ; 1 Sam. xx, 41 with 
Gen. xxxiii, 3. See note on sacred num- 
bers, Luke vi, 13.) The exact round 



drcd yoke of oxen, and five hundred she 
1 Or, cattle. 



numbers, seven and three, and their 
symbolic selection, so frequent in the 
Book of Job, in the opinion of some 
indicate the poetical overlying the his- 
torical. 

3. His substance — Sir G. Wilkinson 
gives a plate, taken from a tomb at the 
pyramids, illustrative of the possessions 
of a wealthy Egyptian proprietor, who 
probably lived four thousand years ago. 
In the schedule appears a flock of four 
thousand two hundred and eight sheep, 
and about the same number of oxen 
and asses as in our text, but no camels. 
The statement of the stock of Abra- 
ham, (Gen. xii, 16,) during his short stay 
in Egypt, presented sheep, oxen, asses 
of both sexes, and camels. He and Job 
were both of a country where camels 
were needed. It is to be remarked 
that in the inventories of all these ex- 
tensive proprietors no horses or mules 
are mentioned — an incidental indication 
of the remote antiquity in which Job 
must have lived. Kitto (Bible Illustra- 
tions) estimates the value of his live 
stock to have been not far from forty 
thousand pounds, and that this did not 
constitute one half of his entire posses- 
sions. Money, too, was then of vastly 
greater relative value than now. His 
wealth was that of a prince. A sheik 
or emir, worth five or six thousand 
pounds, would at the present day be 
regarded as a very rich man. Three 
thousand camels — Of the camel the 
Arabs say: " Job's beast is a miracle of 
God's mercy." The word itself , (hamal,) 
as found in the Arabic, a cognate lan- 
guage, indicates the mission of his life 
to be a beast of burden. The quaint 
old traveler Sandys calls him the ship 
of Arabia — his seas being the deserts. 
In his life he is indispensable, for with- 
out him the vast deserts of the East 
would be impassable ; and in his death 
the Arab, says Seetzen, " turns every 
part to account." As the make of the 
ship tells of the sea, so the make of 
the camel points to the desert ; and the 
one no more indicates the mind of man, 



16 



JOB. 



asses, and a very great 2 household; so 
that this man was the greatest of all the 
s men of the east. 4 And his sons went 
and feasted in their houses, every one his 
day ; and sent and called for their three 



2 Or, husbandry. - 



! Heb. so7is of 



than does the other the forethought 
and' goodness of GTod. Burckhardt 
(Notes) says of the Bedawin residing 
on the frontiers of Yemen : " The father 
of a family is said to be poor among 
them if he possesses only forty camels 
— the usual stock in a family is from 
one to two hundred." She asses — 
The sex is mentioned, not on account 
of the milk, they give, which the Se- 
mitic tribes do not drink, but because 
of their value as breeders. The price 
of the male, however, in Syria is now 
three times that of the female, (Wetz- 
stein.) A peculiar breed is implied in 
the original, jinx, the possession of 

which imported riches or dignity. The 
Targum thus distributes the live stock : 
A thousand sheep to each son, a thou- 
sand camels to each daughter, and the 
asses to the wife. The men of the 
east — Literally, sons of the East. By 
the bene Kedem, "sons of the East," 
is meant, according to Rosenmuller and 
Winer, the miscellaneous tribes (es- 
pecially the Arabian) inhabiting the 
regions between Egypt and the Eu- 
phrates. The word " Saracen " is Ara- 
bic for "men of the East," Orientals. 

4. Every one his day — Which, for 
insufficient reasons, Hirtzel refers to 
national festive days either of the 
spring or of the harvest. As there 
were seven sons, Oehler, Delitzsch, and 
Clericus would understand by the above 
phrase a week of festivity, with its at- 
tendant lustration and sacrifice on the 
seventh day, or sabbath. Thus they 
infer a high antiquity for the division 
of time into weeks and the observance 
of the sabbath. But it probably indi- 
cates their respective birthdays. (Hahn, 
Schlottmann.) " 'His day,' par excel- 
lence" says Umbreit, " is the birthday." 
There was apparently a fixed reason 
for such family festivals. Among the 
people of the East, birthdays have been 
ever commemorated with marked fes- 
tivity. Pharaoh's was celebrated with 



sisters to eat and to drink with them. 
5 And it was so, when the days of their 
feasting were gone about, that Job sent 
and sanctified them, and rose up early 
in the morning, e and offered burnt of- 



the east.- 



Gen. 8.20; chap. 42. 



a feast to all his servants. Wilkinson, 
in Ancient Egyptians, says : " Every 
Egyptian attached much importance 
to the day, and even to the hour, of his 
birth, and it is probable that, as in 
Persia, each individual kept his birth- 
day with great rejoicings, welcoming 
his friends with all the amusements of 
society, and a more than usual profu- 
sion of the delicacies of the table." 
" Of all the days in the year," says 
Herodotus, (i, 133,) " the one which the 
Persians celebrate most is their birth- 
day." Called for their three sisters 
— A joyous home, over which religion 
shed its heavenly light. Its influence 
is seen in the spirit of pure affection 
that bound together the hearts of the 
ten children. It was honourable in 
" the young men " that they should thus 
at the same time consult their own and 
their sisters' happiness ; as if the festive 
circle must be incomplete without the 
crowning joy of their presence. The 
Egyptian monuments also testify to the 
high esteem in which woman was held 
in the earliest ages. "In the treat- 
ment of women they (the Egyptians) 
seem to have been very far advanced 
beyond other wealthy communities of 
the same era, having usages very simi- 
lar to those of modern Europe; and 
such was the respect shown to women 
that precedence w^as given to them 
overmen, and the wives and daughters 
of kings succeeded to the throne, like 
the male branches of the royal family." 
— Sir G. Wilkinson. 

5. Sanctified them — The Septua- 
gint renders DK^iT, "purified them." 

Not being present himself at their fes- 
tivities, Job sent some messenger who 
should summon them to cleanse them- 
selves, perhaps their garments, (Gen. 
xxxv, 2; Exod. xix, 10,) by some un- 
recorded process of lustration. Thus 
they would become ceremonially pure ; 
for thus oidy would they be prepared 
to participate in the benefit of the sac- 



CHAPTER L 



V 



farm"* according to the number of them ! have sinned, and f cursed God in their 
all : tor Job said, It may be that my sons hearts. Thus did Job 4 continually. 



/ 1 Kings 21. 10, 13. 



ritices he proposed next day to offer. 
Jacob pursued a similar course with 
his family prior to the erection of an 
altar unto Clod. St. Chrysostom (quot- 
ed by Wordsworth) says, " that he pu- 
rified their hearts, and not their bodies, 
by prayers ; and that this lustration re- 
sembled an apostolic purification, not a 
Levitical one." Job regarded himself 
as responsible for his family. Its very 
constitution points to higher ends than 
the mere training of children for the 
present life. The family circle is a 
divinely constituted section of our race, 
severed from all others, intrusted to 
the two who stand at its head; and 
God holds that head to stern responsi- 
bility, according to the enlarged views 
of the patriarch Job. (On the entire 
absorption of the family in the person 
of the father under the patriarchal sys- 
tem, see Maine on "Ancient Laws.") 
Burnt offerings— nVjJ? 'holah, a whole 

burnt offering — a sacrifice to be whol- 
ly consumed by fire, hence called holo- 
caust. This word first appears in the 
sacrifice by Noah, (Gen. viii, 20,) and 
denotes, as in the text, a primitive in- 
stitution of this the most imposing of 
all the forms of sacrifice. As a whole 
victim was offered for each of the sons, 
the thoughtful family must have read in 
the ascending flames (lialah, to go up) 
the enormity of sin against God, the 
doctrine of vicarious sacrifice, and the 
necessity of entire consecration to him. 
In the substitution of one for one, they 
may have descried afar off the One Be- 
ing who should die for each sinner. In 
the Levitical economy the offering of 
sacrifices devolved upon a distinct 
tribe. Here Job discharges the duties 
of a priest, which could have been 
proper only among a people distinct 
from the Jewish, (compare Exod. xviii, 
12 ; Num. xxiii, 3, 15,) or in an age an- 
tedating the Jewish, ecouomy. ''Be- 
sides, the Levitical law required in such 
cases as these the offering of a sin offer- 
ing or a trespass offering, but Job offered 
a burnt offering." — Wordsvjorth. The 
Vol. V.— 3 



4Heb. all Hie days. 



indications are, that this sacrifice pre- 
ceded those of the Levitical dispensa 
tion, and belonged rather to those of 
the patriarchal. It serves also casually 
to show the antiquity of this book. 
Under the light, then, of a primeval 
revelation whose one chief rite was 
apparently that of sacrifice, Job ap- 
pears before us the peer of .Mclchisedek 
— like him without father and mother — 
of no known lineage, but highly hon- 
oured to shadow forth the One Priest- 
hood, greater than all others, and 
which, though not of the house of 
Aaron, was to abide forever. Cursed 
God — Rather, renounced God. The 
word T|13, translated curse, primarily 

means to "bow" or "bend the knee;" 
thence it came to signify to " pray," 
"praise," and to "bless," since the 
knee was bowed in these respective 
acts. From the custom of pronouncing 
blessings upon occasions of separation 
the word in time assumed another 
meaning, that of "bidding farewell." 
In like manner our own word farewell, 
fare (thee) well, pronounces a blessing 
upon the act of parting. A like change 
took place in the Greek x aL P etv an d in 
the Latin valere, until, like the Hebrew 
barak, they were used in the sense of 
" renouncing." Job's fear of God led 
him to apprehend that his sons, in the 
excess of pleasure, might have deemed 
the thought of God intrusive, at least un- 
essential to their joys, and thus in their 
hearts have been guilty ol renouncing 
God. Comp. xxi, 14. "It is curious that 
the sin which the father's heart dread- 
ed in his children was the sin to which 
he himself was tempted, and into which 
he almost fell." — Davidson. In their 
hearts — Job's view of the heart partly 
anticipates that of Christ: " Out of the 
heart proceed evil thoughts." Job 
evidently regarded the heart as the 
seat of evil, the source of moral actiou, 
and the fountain-head of responsibility. 
A dominion is thus betokened not only 
over overt action, but the more mys- 
terious realm of thought. Job knew 
o. t. 



18 



JOB. 



6 Now * there was a day h when the 
sons of God came to present themselves 



g Chapter 2. 1. h 1 Kings 22. 19; chapter 

8. 7. 5 Hebrew, the Adversary, 1 Chron. 



that evil thoughts needed an atonement. 
The senseless and practically Epicurean 
maxim, " Thought is free,"' found no 
favour in that earnest age. The flames 
of whole burnt offerings "continually" 
proclaimed, as with solemn tongues of 
fire, man's responsibility for all his 
thoughts. See note on Rom. x, 10. 

Jehovah's Determination to try 
Job, 6-12 
'It was a correct feeling which in- 
fluenced the poet to indicate at the out- 
set to the reader the divine grounds of 
the decree, and thus to provide for him 
a polestar which would guide him 
through all the entanglement of the 
succeeding conflicts. This he does by 
disclosing to us those events occurring 
in heaven which led to the divine de- 
cree concerning Job, the execution of 
which thereupon follows." — Dillmann. 
6. Now there was a day — Rather, 
Nov) it came to pass on the day, per- 
haps some fixed time when the sons 
of G-od came together ; "a sabbath 
day," says Lightfoot, ii, 110. Greswell 
(Fasti Catholici, i, 18) adduces Psalm 
lxxxix, 29, andDeut. xi, 21, in illustra- 
tion of his speculation, that it may be 
not merely in the language of analogy, 
or of accommodation to human ideas, 
that inspiration itself speaks of the day s 
of heaven, or givelTus reason to con- 
clude that even in heaven, as well as 
on earth, the lapse of time is-naeaswred 
and numbered 'by days of some kind or 
other. In keeping with this, the Chal- 
dee paraphrast has presumed to speci- 
fy the day: "Now it happened in the 
day of judgment, (or scrutiny,) in the 
beginning of the year, that hosts of an- 
gels came to stand in judgment before 
Jehovah, and Satan came." The sons 
of God — Septuagint, "angels of God." 
Targum, "crowds of angels." (See chap. 
xxxviii, 7.) The sons of God are un- 
questionably angels, be ings of some o ne 
of Jhe_ several gradatioriS_jof---t^e-4ftt el- 
l igont and holf^unlyiiae. Eph. i, 21. 



The sons ofGod, bene Elohim, were in 



before the Lord, and 5 Satan came also 
6 among them. 7 And the Lord said 



21. 1 : Revelation 12. 9, 10. 
midst of them. 



Hebrew, in the 



existence when " the foundations of the 
earth were laid," and united in cele- 
brating the laying of its corner-stone 
with "shouts of joy." The peculiar 
designation of sons of God may point to 
a close relationship or a similarity of na- 
ture with Him, somewhat like that ex- 
isting between child and parent among 
us. These sons of Deity may differ more 
from angels, who bear other titles, than 
from our own race, who, under the en- 
nobling influences of grace, are called 
sons of God. (Gen. vi, 2 ; Hos. i, 10 ; 
Rom. viii. 14.) Satan, though ruined by 
sin. was still in essential nature a son 
of God, and may have had at that time 
certain primordial rights (not then with- 
drawn, Luke x, 18 ; John xii, 31 ; Rev. 
xii, 9) to appear with these sons before 
God. Christ, par excellence, is called 
" Son of God," the only-begotten of the 
Father, because he alone of all beings 
has oneness of nature with God. (See 
note on Gen. vi, 2.) At a period not 
far from the time of Job the doctrine 
of angelic ministry had been plainly 
revealed. The ascent and descent of 
the angels upon Jacob's ladder em- 
blemed forth their tireless activity. 
They "rest not day and night." Rev. 
iv, 8. Before the Lord — Elolrim — 
in the next verse Jthovah. (See note 
on verse 21 and on Gen. ii, 4.) They 
"Jtake their stand '' (Carey) before Je- 
hovah,~probabTy to engage in praise 
and adoration, and perhaps at the same 
time, to render account for their actions, 
and receive new commissions and be- 
hests. That these " sons of God " should 
be called upon at stated times to give 
account of their deeds is not an unrea- 
sonable thought for us — a race upon 
whom the sense of responsibility is 
stamped, and who will be summoned 
to undergo our ordeal at the close of life. 
And Satan — See Excursus I. Came 
also among them — Excursus II. 

[Jehovah is the great sovereign Pa- 
triarch, the divine Father-king ; he has 
sent his sons, the viceroy governors 
of mundane things, into all the w rid • 



CHAPTER I. 



19 



unto Satan, Whence comest thou ? Then 
Satan answered the Lord, and said, 
From ' going to and fro in the earth, and 
from walking up and down in it. 8 And 
the Lorb said unto Satan, 7k Hast thou 



Chapter 2. 2: Matthew 12. 43; 1 Peter 5. 
7 Hebrew, Hast thou set thy heart on. 



and to-day, the day, is " cabinet-meet- 
ing " day, on which they all assemble 
and report. The Satan, (adversary,) 
with cool assurance, presents himself 
as one of the viceroys, nay, as one of 
the sons, and Jehovah, in irony, de- 
mands of him, in his turn, his report. 
He retorts with a sort of vagabond ac- 
count of himself, and Jehovah, know- 
ing his malignancy against the good, 
points his attention to an unquestiona- 
ble specimen of genuine goodness in 
the person of Job. And that opens 
the great discussion. — Ed.] 

7. Whence comest thou — Accord- 
ing to the tenor of the Scriptures it 
is not unworthy of God to hold con- 
verse with any of his intelligent crea- 
tures, even though they be fallen; as 
is illustrated in the scenes subsequent 
to the sin of Adam, the murder of Abel, 
and in the conversation of Christ with 
the tempter. From going to and fro 
— The Chaldee paraphrase here adds, 
"to examine into the works of the 
sons of men." The word O^ is best 
translated, as by Dr. Good, " roaming 
around," which accords with Ewald 
and Dillmann. His course has been, 
not on paths divinely ordered, but here 
and there, as has been pleasing to him- 
self. In like manner Peter: ''Your ad- 
versary the devil, as a roaring lion, 
loalketh about. [Kepi-Tra-el — peripatetic,] 
peeking whom he may devour." The 
rendering of Umbreit, " to whip 
through," "as if Satan sped along in 
storm like a destructive wind," maybe 
in part accepted. See ch. v, 21. It is 
apparently the Jaw of all sinful beings 
severed from "the Lord of peace " to be 
unceasingly restless. The reply is curt 
and tart, that of a ruined spirit who 
has nothing to hope — not unlike that 
of Cain when arraigned. Among the 
Arabs the devil is called el-hharith — 
the active, busy, industrious one. The 
olden Greeks represented Ate, who had 
been hurled fr.in heaven, as a malicious 



considered my servant Job, that there is 
none like him in the earth, ' a perfect 
and an upright man, one that feareth 
God, and escheweth evil ? 9 Then Sa- 
tan answered the Lord, and said, m Doth 



k Chapter 2. 3. 1 Verse 1. m Malachi 1. 10; 

1 Timothy 4. 8 ; 6. 6. 



deity traveling to and fro over the 
earth with great rapidity, always in- 
tent on doing injury to mankind. 

8. Hast thou (in thy travels) con- 
sidered — Remarked, noticed, Qi^ 

hv ^bi literally, as in the margin. 

The question falls like a spark upon a 
mind inflammable with evil, and the evil 
spirit becomes unconsciously an agent 
for the accomplishment of the divine 
purpose — the trial of Job. " Not only 
must he receive God's permission be- 
fore he can proceed one step against Job, 
but the very occasion through which 
he attains that permission is gratuitous- 
ly provided for him by God." — Evans. 
My servant — A title of honoup con- 
ferred by God on but few. The term 
is endearing, My servant. Though 
but " a root out of a dry ground " of 
heathenism, there was none in all the 
East his equal. A perfect and an 
upright man — The repetition not only 
constitutes a poetical elegance common 
in the classics, but shows most expres- 
sively the moral worth of the man. 
The estimate of Job, expressed by the 
author in verse 1, (which see,) now re- 
ceives the divine approval. 

9. Doth Job fear God for nought 
— Or " without good reason " — i( gratui- 
tously?" 

[Satan, the accuser of the brethren, 
is here the representative of the human 
deniers of the reality of piety, whether 
as a sceptical speculation or as a prac- 
tical feeling such as men have who, 
having given up goodness themselves, 
desire to reduce all others to their own 
case.— Ed.~\ 

This question starts the problem of 
the book. Is Job not a hireling with 
whom pay is the only consideration? 
The first words from the lips of Satan 
of which man has record. (Gen. iii, 1,) 
were a malicious reflection upon divine 
love. True to his nature as " accuser/' 
he can see in the best of human virtue 



20 



JOB. 



Job fear God for nought? 10 "Hast 
not thou made a hedge about him, and 
about his house, and about all that he 
hath on every side? "thou hast blessed 
the work of his hands, and his 8 sub- 
stance is increased in the land. 1 1 p But 
put forth thine hand now, and touch all 



n Psa. 34. 7 ; Isa. 5. '. 
10.22. 8 Or, cattle. 



-0 Psa. 128. 1,2; Prov. 
?Chap. 2. 5; 19. 21. 



only mercenary motives ; and tins, his 
first onset against Job, becomes a "re- 
flection that sheds its poisonous ven- 
om " on a whole race. It is natural 
for fallen beings to depreciate that in 
others of which they are conscious 
that they themselves are deficient. " It 
is not amiss for every one, (or Ids mere 
watchfulness, to mark that Satan knows 
Job as soon as ever God speaks of him." 
— Lightfoot. 

10. Hast not thou — (fitf, thou, the 

very one whom Job fears) — made a 
hedge about him — The Chaldee par- 
aphrases it : " Hast thou not covered 
him with thy word?" In his mind 
Satan sees a field or garden surrounded 
with a hedge as a protection against 
wild beasts. According to Thomson, 
(Land and Book, i, 299,) the stone walls 
which surround the sheepfolds of mod- 
ern Palestine are frequently covered 
with sharp thorns. (Hos. ii, 6.) The 
fence was threefold — first, around Job 
himself; then another, an exterior hedge, 
around his house ; and a third protection 
or fence around all thai he possessed, 
somewhat after the manner of fortify- 
ing ancient cities. Such, Satan unwit- 
tingly says, is God's mode of protect- 
ing those who are his. Thou hast 
blessed— "Wordsworth remarks : ' ' Even 
Satan confesses that God's benediction 
is the source of all good to man." Is 
increased — y\B signifies to break 

through bounds. Not unlike a swollen 
stream, his herds had covered the land, 
(better, the earth,) thus showing the 
greatness of his possessions. The 
Arabs at the present day employ this 
word to express the mouth of a stream. 

11. Touch all that he hath — God 
needs but touch the fairest estate of 
man and it withers. The word yjj may 

also be rendered smite, as in verse 19. 



that he hath, 9 and he will q curse thee 
to thy face. 12 And the Lord said 
unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath 
is in thy 10 power ; only upon himself 
put not forth thine hand. So Satan 
went forth from the presence of the 
Lord. 



9Heb. if he cwrse thee not to thy face. 
tflsa. 8. 21. lOHeb. hand, Gen. 16. 6. 



It is worthy of special remark that 
Job's piteous cry, "the hand of God 
hath touched me," (xix, 21,) corre- 
sponds to the present cruel demand of 
Satan with the same word, yjj. Some 

have indulged the fanciful notion that 
the Satan here is merely an accusing 
angel; but the maliciousness evinced 
not only in his sneer at human virtue, 
but in his desire that God should touch 
all that Job hath, already proclaims him 
the devil whose works Christ came to 
destroy. And he will curse thee — 
And — K7"D' , N, literally, If not, truly, 

verily ; the formula of an oath with- 
out the apodosis. The evil spirit is by 
no means chary of the words he uses. 
Curse thee — tj-q in the sense of re- 
nouncing, as in verse 5. (See note.) The 
shameless effrontery and arrogance of 
Satan are heightened by the added 
words, "to thy face." 

12. All that he hath is in thy 
power — As in the margin, hand. Job 
is now delivered into the hand of Sa- 
tan. His piety is to be put to the 
sorest test. All virtue is conditioned 
upon trial — the higher the virtue the 
severer the ordeal. The stroke is a 
bold cne, even for the empire of the 
world. For God had declared Job the 
best man then living. (Verse 8.) If Sa- 
tan should succeed in showing Job to 
be a hypocrite, he will practically dem- 
onstrate that there is no substantial 
virtue in the world. So Satan went 
forth — Not so much to his roaming "to 
and fro," as in a straight and definite 
line to execute his permitted "mission " 
of evil. By that mission he would seek 
to destroy virtue ; but God shall so over- 
rule him that he will only furnish the 
conditions by which hardy and fried vir- 
tue is made possible and demonstrated. 
A like remark is made of Cain, (Gen. 



CHAPTER I. 



21 



1 3 And there was a day r when his 
pons and his daughters xcere eating and 
drinkincr wine in their eldest brother's 



r Eccles. 



iv, 16,) and of Judas, that " he went im- 
mediately out " to his deed of treachery. 
There is no delay: evil nature recoils 
from the constrained presence of the 
pure and good to its own congenial 
work of ruin. He goes with alacrity 
and with vast resources, and in high 
expectation of encompassing the fall of 
one saint, which better pleaseth him 
than of many unbelievers. 

From this we learn that trials are 
proportioned to the strength of the 
soul. The intensity of the kindling 
flames declares the estimate God puts 
upon the virtue of Job. On the one 
hand, all temptation at the hand of Sa- 
tan sets forth the value of the soul, 
and its high destiny in another life: 
on the other, the saying is no less 
true, that " in every temptation to sin 
the devil cheapens our immortal souls," 
and in every way endeavours to depre- 
ciate them before the soul itself. " G-od 
tries men, that they may rise: Satan 
tempts them, that they may fall." 

Four Messengers of Misfortune, 
13-19. 

"It is not accidental," says Heng- 
stenberg, " that there are just four ca- 
tastrophes divided into two pairs, and 
corresponding to the fourfold particu- 
larization of the righteousness of Job. 
In them may be seen a sort of irony 
of destiny touching his and all human 
righteousness." The Germans have 
also remarked upon the peculiarity that 
the first and third of the calamities are 
ascribed to human, the second and 
fourth to celestial, agencies. — Evans. 
The Germans call calamities hiobs-post- 
en — "Job's posts," or messengers — a 
proverbial expression similar to our 
own " Job's comforters." 

13. There was a day — Literally, 
Now it was the day ; the day of festiv- 
ity, which in the rotation happened to 
be at the house of the firstborn. On 
this account it was probably the most 
marked of all the feasts of the year. 
It was a feast, too, in which the drink- 



house: 14 And there came a messen- 
ger unto Job, and said, The oxen were 
ploughing, and the asses feeding beside 



ing of wine is specified, to set forth its 
sumptuousness and hilarity. These 
two circumstances heighten the preci- 
pice down which the family is so soon 
to be plunged. In the mention of 
wine-drinking we have, in part, the 
reason for job's anxiety over these 
festive occasions, and perhaps also the 
secret of his standing aloof. "Wine- 
drinking and its drunken effects, even 
upon women, are portrayed on the 
monuments of Egypt. The winepress- 
es and offerings of wine to the gods, 
pictured in the tombs, establish the 
making of wine as far back as the 
fourth dynasty, (about 2450 B. C.) This 
is supposed to be the remotest period 
from which the manners of the people 
were thus perpetuated. The culture 
of the vine was, without doubt, of a 
vastly greater antiquity, (Gen. ix, 20,) 
as is seen in the exceptional fact that 
substantially the same word is used 
for wine among almost all eastern and 
western nations. The basis of the 
word is found, according to Pott and 
Kuhn, in the Indo-European language, 
the former making it from we, to weave, 
the latter from wan, to love. Gesenius 
and Fiirst, on the other hand, hold that 
it is of Semitic extraction, and cognate 
to J", either from a root signifying 

"burning," or another, "to tread out 
grapes." The oneness of the word in 
the Indo-European and Semitic lan- 
guages may be illustrated by compar- 
ing the Greek oivog, originally foinos, 
the Latin vin-um, the Welsh g-win, with 
the Hebrew yayin, the Arabic wain, 
(a bunch of grapes,) Ethiopic wain, 
(wine.) 

First Messenger. 
14. A messenger — In each of the 
four cases the messenger was, Chrysos- 
tom thinks, (though without authority 
from the text,) Satan himself, who 
brought the tidings to Job that he 
might feed on his misery. The oxen 
were ploughing — A single touch of 
the pencil sets forth the quietude and 



22 



JOB. 



them : 15 And the B Saheans fell upon 
them, and took them away ; yea, they 
have slain the servants with the edge of 

sPsa. 72. 10; Isa. 45. 14; 



peace that reigned around. The sci- 
entist speaks of a like hush of nature 




before an earthquake. " The ancient 
plough was entirely of wood, and of as 
simple a form as that of modern Egypt. 
It consisted of a share, two handles, 
and the pole or beam, which last was 
inserted into the lower end of the stilt 
on the base of the handles, and was 
strengthened by a rope connecting it 
with the heel. It had no coulter, nor 
were wheels applied to any Egyptian 
plough; but it is probable that the 
point was shod with a metal sock of 
bronze or iron. It was drawn by two 
oxen, and the ploughman guided and 
drove them with a long goad, without 
the assistance of reins, which are used 
by the modern Egyptians." — Wilkinson. 
15. The Sabeans — In the original, 
Sheba ; the name of the country, for its 
inhabitants. In broken and startling 
language he cries, " Sheba fell and took 
them." Three races bearing the name 
Sdbean are mentioned in Genesis : the 
one in the line of Cush, (x, 7.) the sec- 
ond of Joktan, (x, 28,) and the third in 
that of Abraham by Keturah, (xxv, 3.) 
The Sabeans of our text were of the 
last-named lineage, and as a nomadic 
tribe occupied the country south-east 
of Uz; that part of Arabia Beserta 
stretching from the Persian Gulf to 
Idumea — the home of Job. A similar 
state of lawlessness prevails through- 
out that entire country at the present 
time. "Wealth among the Arabs is 
extremely precarious, and the most 
rapid changes of fortune are daily ex- 
perienced. The bold incursions of rob- 
bers and sudden attacks of hostile par- 
ties reduce, in a few days, the richest 
man to a state of beggary ; and we may 
venture to say there are not many fa- 
thers of families who have escaped such 



the sword ; and I only am escaped alone 
to tell thee. 1 6 While he was yet speak- 
ing, there came also another, and said, 



Ezek. 23. 42; Joel 3. 8. 



disasters." — Burckhardt, Bedawin, i, 
81. They have slain the servants 

— Kt'harim sometimes signifies chil- 
dren and young men as well as ser- 
vants. A large body of men, in the 
pride of their manhood, through the 
malice of one being are put to the edge 
of the sword. "We must not here 
think of the paid day-labourer of the 
Syrian towns, or the servants of our 
landed proprietors, — they are unknown 
on the borders of the desert. The hand 
that toils has there a direct share in the 
gain ; the workers belong to the auldd, 
— 'children of the house,' — and are so 
called ; in the hour of danger they will 
risk their life for their lord. This rus- 
tic labour is always undertaken sim- 
idtantously by all the quarterers, (so 
called from their receiving a fourth part 
of the harvest for their labour, the ustad 
meantime providing instruments of ag- 
riculture, and for the shelter and board 
of the ' quarterers,') for the sake of or- 
der, since the ustad, or in his absence 
the village sheik, has the general work 
of the following day announced from the 
roof of his house every evening. Thus 
it is explained how the five hundred 
ploughmen could be together in one and 
the same district and be slain all togeth- 
er." — Wetzsteix in Delitzsch, ii, 418. 
And I only — Each of these four mes- 
sengers represents himself to be the sole 
survivor of the dire calamity, and this 
has been objected against the historical 
character of the book. The author, it 
is to be remarked, however, gives us 
the message as they delivered it. Noth- 
ing would be more natural, in the midst 
of the confusion and terror attending 
the apparently general destruction, than 
for each one to suppose himself alone 
to have escaped. It may have been a 
part of the diabolic machination that 
each should close his message in the 
same manner, in order to give to the 
series of calamities the unmistakable 
cast of a divine judgment. 

[It seems to the editor that these 
exactnesses show an idealizing of the 



CHAPTER I. 



23 



11 The fire of God is fallen from heaven, 
and hath burned up the sheep, and the 
servants, and consumed them ; and I 

11 Or, A 



history. The geography and names 
imply history; the sevens and threes, 
the poetical repetition by G-od of Job's 
excellency, and other square things, are 
superhistorical.] 

Second Messenger. 

16. Fire of God — Or lightning, as 
in 1 Kings xviii, 38. Thus Euripides : — 

Alas ! alas ! may the fire of heaven 
Strike through my head. — Medea, 144. 

According to Delitzsch, a rain of lire 
like that of Sodom. Umbreit and 
Ewald suppose it to have been the si- 
moom — the fiery, sulphurous wind of 
Arabia, called by the Arab and the Turk 
" the wind of poison." Its approach is 
heralded by an unusual redness of the 
sky, which, while the wind lasts, seems 
to be all on fire. The blast of air. heat- 
ed to quite two hundred degrees, fre- 
quently becomes a tornado, whirling 
along vast mounds of sand, which some- 
times overwhelm armies, as in the case 
of Cambyses and his 50,000 men. But 
as this visitation "fell (rpDJ) from heav- 
en," it seems more natural to interpret 
it of lightning. It is significant that 
the second stroke came from heaven, 
as if to impress Job with the convic- 
tion that God, as well as man, was 
against him. 

Third Messenger. 

17. The Chaldaeans— Or, Chasdim. 
They appear to have been one of the 
many Cushite tribes inhabiting the 
great alluvial plain lying far to the 
north-east of Idumea, known as Baby- 
lonia or Chaldrea — the latter, according 
to Ptolemy, forming the south-western 
portion of the former. From the earli- 
est times the people occupying this 
land, though of the Haraite race, have 
been distinguished for their cultivation 
of science and their discoveries in the 
arts. Their principal tribe was the 
Accad. Gen. x, 10. "With this race 
originated the art of writing, the build- 



only am escaped alone to tell thee. 
17 While he was yet speaking, there 
came also another, and said. The Chal- 

great fire. 



ing of cities, and the institution of a re- 
ligious system." — Rawlinson, Herodo- 
tus, i, 256. "When the Semitic tribes es- 
tablished themselves in Assyria, in the 
thirteenth century before Christ, they 
adopted the alphabet of the Accad. The 
tablets found at Nineveh are exclusive- 
ly in the Accadian language. (See Raw- 
linson, ibid., and " Five Great Monarch- 
ies," vol. i, ch. iii.) Yet these are the 
people who are moved to a merciless 
foray against the unoffending man of 
God. In later times they are described 
as " terrible " — " a bitter and hasty na- 
tion " — whose " horses are swifter than 
the leopards," and "more fierce than 
the evening wolves." Hab. i, 6-1 1. The 
distance from Chaldffia to Idumaea is 
not far from five hundred miles. Yet 
"scarcely a year passes during which 
the border of Syria is not ravaged by 
plundering parties from Mesopotamia, 
and sometimes even from the shores of 
the Persian Gulf. . . . Raids are now, 
also, as they were in Job's days, sud- 
den, rapid, and unexpected." — J. L. 
Porter. " Once at least in every year 
the Teyaheh [a tribe of the Bedawin] 
collect in force, often mustering as 
many as one thousand guns, and set off 
on camels for the country of the 'Ana- 
zeh, a distance of more than twenty 
days' journey. Having chosen for their 
expedition the season of the year when 
the camels are sent out to graze, they 
seldom fail to come across some large 
herd feeding at a distance from the 
camp and watched by a few attendants 
only. These they drive off, the men 
who possess guns forming a guard on 
either side and in the rear, and the rest 
leading the beasts. It sometimes, 
though rarely, happens that they get 
off clear with their booty before the 
owners are aware of the invasions; but 
in many cases they are hotly pursued, 
and compelled to relinquish their prey 
and take to their heels. In the last of 
these excursions the Teyaheh carried 
off more than six hundred head of cat- 
tle."— Palmer, Desert of Exodus, 295. 



24 



JOB. 



deans made out three bands, and 12 fell 
upon the camels, and have carried them 
away, yea, and slain the servants with 
the edge of the sword ; and I only am 
escaped alone to tell thee. 18 ^"hile 
he was yet speaking, there came also 
another, and said, l> Thy sons and thy 



12 Heb. rushed. 1 Verses 4, 13. 



Three bands — They formed them- 
selves into three columns, (Judges vii, 
16; 1 Samuel xi, 11,) according to the 
ancient tactics of "war ; literaUy, "set 
three heads (bands) and spread out," 
(D 5^3,) that they might encompass the 

three thousand camels, who are easily 
affrighted and then exceedingly diffi- 
cult to take. These three bands, ac- 
cording to Jahn, were probably the 
center, left, and right wing. In illus- 
tration of the availableness of the camel, 
"Wellsted (Arabia, i, 300) states that 
the usual pace of the Oman camels, 
when the Bedawin mount them for a 
desert journey, is a quick, hard trot 
from six to eight miles an hour. They 
will continue this for twenty to twenty- 
four consecutive hours, but increase 
their speed, on occasions which require 
it, to thirteen or fifteen miles an hour. 
Laborde tells us (Arabia, 261) that his 
camel carried him from Suez to Cairo 
(thirty-two leagues) in seventeen hours. 
Burckhardt (Notes, ii, 79) describes a 
wager which the camel lost, but he had 
traveled one hundred and fifteen miles 
in eleven hours, though twice crossing 
the Nile iu a ferry-boat. 

Fourth Messenger. 

18. Drinking wine — The mention of 
wine-drinking in so painful an associa- 
tion, suggests that in the mind of the 
messenger there may have been the 
thought, how ill-prepared these young 
people were for death's surprise. 

19. Prom the wilderness — Literal- 
ly, frombeyond the desert. "Q"l!3n, with 

the article as here, generally signifies 
the great Arabian desert, lying to the 
south of Palestine, and extending from 
Egypt as far as the Persian Gulf. The 
most destructive storms come from 
that direction. Sweeping across this 
desert, with no obstacle to break its 



daughters were eating and drinking wine 
in their eldest brother's house : 19 And, 
behold, there came a great wind 13 from 
the wilderness, and smote the four 
corners of the house, and it fell upon 
the young men, and they are dead ; and 
I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 



13 Heb. from aside, &c. 



force, this storm constantly increased in 
intensity until it became a whirlwind, 
(so Dillmann thinks,) and thus struck 
the four corners of the house at once. 
Mr. Buckingham thus describes a whirl- 
wind which he encountered in the des- 
ert of Suez: "Fifty gales of wind at 
sea seemed to me more easy to be en- 
countered than one among these sands. 
It is impossible to imagine desolation 
more complete ; we could see neither 
sun, earth, nor sky; the plain at ten 
paces distance was absolutely imper- 
ceptible; our beasts, as well as our- 
selves, were so covered as to render 
breathing difficult ; they hid their faces 
in the ground, and we could only un- 
cover our own for a moment to behold 
this chaos of midday darkness." Such 
winds, says Dr. J. L. Porter, are com- 
mon in the desert. " They pass along 
with a roar like a cataract, and can be 
both seen and heard at a great dis- 
tance. I have often witnessed them." 
Such a tornado would destroy a house 
exactly as here described, " smiting it 
upon the four corners." Young men 
— D"Hy^. An archaic form of frequent 

use in the Pentateuch (like the Greek 
7ratc) for either or both of the sexes. 
They are dead — The climax of con- 
ceivable evils is now reached. Each 
additional one had been more disas- 
trous than that which preceded. This 
— before which the others are dwarfed 
— is forcibly left to the last. Dante 
says of Satan that he is a master lo- 
gician. The first stroke was the work 
of men, and entailed the loss of five 
hundred yoke of oxen and as many 
asses ; in the second, the fire of God 
fell, and burned up the seven thou- 
sand sheep; in the third, men were 
again the agents, and the Chaldeans 
swooped up the three thousand cam- 
els; in each case their attendants being 
left dead on the field. But what are all 



CHAPTER I. 



25 



20 Then Job arose, u and rent his 
» mantle, and shaved his head, and 
v fell down upon the ground, and wor- 
shipped, 21 And said, "Naked came 



v Gen. 37. 29; Ezra 9. 3.— 14 Or, robe. — 
v 1 Peter 5. 6. w Psa. 49. 17; Eccles. 5. 15; 



these in the presence of a family of ten 
dead children? These diversified ca- 
lamities were so ordered, that, like so 
many claps of thunder, the reverber- 
ation of one died not away before an- 
other broke upon the sky. 

The Triumph of Job, verses 20-22. 
20. Then Job arose — Thus far he 
has borne unmoved the successive 
shocks of adverse fate. But now na- 
ture triumphs. As the tidings of the 
last great grief break upon him he rises, 
and yielding to the more tender im- 
pulses of our common nature, resigns 
himself to sorrow, but not one moment 
to suspense of faith in God. And 
rent his mantle — There was no cus- 
tom among the Orientals correspond- 
ing to that among ourselves, of put- 
ting on of mourning attire in token of 
heavy grief. They, on the contrary, 
instead of changing their outer dress, 
rent it in twain. This custom was 
common among the nations of antiquity. 
The byfy me'hil, mantle made of linen, 

in later times also of cotton, was an 
outer garment worn by priests, kings, 
and the very rich, and sometimes by 
the daughters of kings. That of the 
high priest was, according to Josephus, 
a long vestment of a blue colour woven 
in one piece, but with openings for the 
neck and arms. (Antiquities, iii, chap, 
vii, 4.) In the opinion of some, Christ, 
as high priest, wore a similar garment, 
for which the soldiers cast lots at the 
foot of the cross. (Johnxix, 23.) And 
shaved his head — This was forbidden 
among the Jews to the priests. (Lev.xxi, 
5.) The people were prohibited (Deut. 
xiv, 1, and Lev. xix, 27) from rounding 
the corners of their heads, etc., which 
had, perhaps, respect to some idolatrous 
custom among neighbouring nations. 
Herodotus (ii, 36) says of the Egyptians, 
who " wear no hair at any other time, 
that when they lose a relative they let 
their beards and the hair of their heads 



1 out of my mother's womb, and naked 
shall I return thither: the Lord x gave, 
and the Lord hath y taken away ; 

2 blessed be the name of the Lord. 



1 Tim. 6. T.- 
James 1. 17. 



x Eccles. 2. 26; 5. 19; John 3. 27; 
-1/Matt. 20. 15. sEph. 5. 20. 



grow long. Elsewhere it is customary 
in mourning for near relatives to cut 
their hair close." The custom among 
the Greeks, according to Plutarch, was 
similar to that of the Egyptians. The 
shaving of his head is decisive that Job 
could not have been an Egyptian. This 
deliberate and protracted act shows in 
a striking manner Job's mastery over 
himself and his sorrow. Fell down 
upon the ground, and worshipped — 
(Compare 2 Sam. xii, 20.) "That he 
might not show pride by his insensi- 
bility he fell down at the stroke ; but 
that he might not estrange himself from 
Him who strikes, he so fell down as 
to worship." — St. Gregory, Moralia. 
"He aiose," says Origen, "and at 
length prostrated himself. He arose 
for battle; he prostrated himself for 
peace. He arose for the perfection of 
victory; he prostrated himself for the 
reception of the crown." 

21. Return thither— The Chaldee 
paraphrast interprets thither by "the 
house of burial." In the Apocrypha is 
an evident paraphrase of this verse, "A 
heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam 
from the day that they go out of their 
mother's womb till the day that they re- 
turn to the mother of all things." Eccle- 
siasticus xl, 1. Cyprian thus quotes the 
passage: "Naked came I out of my 
mother's womb, and naked shall I go 
under the earth." Comp. Eccles. v, 15. 
The classics, in like manner, speak of 
the earth as the mother of all mortals. 
(Livy, Hist, i, 56; Suetonius, Julius 
Cesar, chap, vii.) J. D. Michaelis and 
others erroneously adduce this passage 
in proof of the pre-existence of souls in 
the depth of the earth. Lord gave . . . 
Lord . . . taken . . . blessed be . . . Lord 
— In this remarkable passage, which Dr. 
Chalmers calls "one of the most pre- 
cious memorabilia of the Scriptures," 
and Hitzig "the epilogue of a prayer," 
the word Jehovah is used three times 
with marked significance. Under the 
sanction of an oath Satan had declared 



26 



JOB. 



22 a In all this Job sinned not, nor 
15 charged God foolishly. 



a Chap. 2. 10. 15 Or, attributed 



Job would renounce (curse) '•pi'', G-od, 

(verse 11 ;) on the contrary, the coin- 
cidence is notable that with the same 
word, Tp2P) he "blesses" and wor- 
ships God. The Septuagint adds after 
the second clause, "As it seemed good 
to the Lord so it has come to pass." 
In the subsequent dialogues of the 
book the name Jehovah is used by the 
speakers but once, and then by Job 
himself, xii, 9. 1. The word Jehovah 
is a personal proper name, intended to 
express the personality of Deity. It is 
from the verb HTt, hayah, to be, and in- 

T T 

dicates independent and underived ex- 
istence. Self-existence necessarily im- 
plies eternity and unchangeableness, 
(Mai. iii, 6,) and this, and this only, 
furnishes a proper basis for the moral 
attributes of Deity. The word strug- 
gles to convey the idea of the inner- 
most being of God, the very essence 
of his personality. The word Elohim, 
on the contrary, with its root idea 
of power, sets forth God as creator, 
and partakes more of the character 
of a common noun, being quite gen- 
erally used with the article or some 
other qualification, etc., while Jeho- 
vah, as a proper name, dispenses with 
the article. The frequent recurrence 
in Job of the older names for God, 
such as Shaddai, El, and Eloah, is in 
keeping with the earlier usage of the 
Pentateuch, and points to a remote an- 
tiquity for the authorship of this book. 
(See Hengstenberg, " Genuineness of 
the Pentateuch," i, 231-308.) 2. The 
word Jehovah, whether pointed miT, 
or miT, as others would read, is be- 
lieved by many to indicate futurity, and 
to contain a prophecy of the incarna- 
tion, which is also supposed by some to 
be implied in its radical meaning of life, 
which was the pre-eminent attribute 
of Christ. Delitzsch (Symb., p. 29) finds 
the interpretation of the meaning of 
Elohim in the mystery of the trinity — 
that of Jehovah in the incarnation.' 



A 



CHAPTER II. 

GAIN a there was a day when the 



Jolly to God. a Chap. 1. 



The one name would then be the ex- 
ponent of creation, preservation, and 
government ; the other of salvation 
and of grace. 3. The close and tender 
relationship of God, as Jehovah, to Is- 
rael, will help us to a proper concep- 
tion of the word. It not only embraced 
all the moral attributes of God, but 
those relationships which among men 
are most endearing — those of father, 
husbind, and Saviour. (Deuteronomy 
xxxii, 6, etc.) 

According to Havernick, "it denoted 
the essence of the Godhead in its con- 
crete relation to mankind, the revela- 
tion of the living God himself, which is 
as much unique as its object is unique." 
It is, then, not without the deepest rea- 
son that Job passes by the olden divine 
names of power, El, Eloah, p]lohim, 
Shaddai, and in the unshaken affection 
of the soul addresses God as Jehovah. 
His stricken heart seeks the heart of 
God. His appeal rises in sublimity as 
we contemplate him spontaneously, and 
at once, casting himself upon the eter- 
nal God (Jehovah) who is the Saviour 
and life of the soul. Upon the very issue 
that the adversary had made — that Job, 
stripped of his possessions, would re- 
nounce God — faith strikes its key-note 
of triumph. He blesses God, but not ac- 
cording to the Satanic form of blessing. 
The jubilant cry of Job is a remarkable 
and unconscious rejoinder to the dark 
insinuation that he served God for what 
he could get. The withdrawing of the 
goods or blessings of life is one of the 
modes God takes to remind us that all 
we have belongs to hirn. " Just as in 
some places on one day in the year the 
way or path is closed in order to remind 
the public that they pass by sufferance 
and not by right, in order that no lapse 
of time may establish ' adverse posses- 
sion,' so does God give warning to us. 1 ' 
— F. W. Robertson, Se7\ ii, 65, etc. 

22. Nor charged God foolishly — 
" In all that had befallen him " (Septua- 
gint) he had neither sinned nor uttered 
folly against God. Aben Ezra's render- 
ing is more literal : " He spake nothing 



CHAPTER IT. 



27 



sons of God came to present them- 
selves before the Lord, and Satan came 
also among them to present himself be- 
fore the Lord. 2 And the Lobd said 
unto Satan, From whence comest thou? 
And b Satan answered the Lord, and 
said, From going to and fro in the earth, 
and from walking up and down in it. 
3 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast 



b Chap. 1. 



-c Chap. 1. 8.- 



: Chap. 27. 5, 6. 



out of taste or against reason." Tyn- 
dale gives it, " nor murmured foolishly 
against God." The approval is entirely 
retrospective. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Fifth and Sixth Temptation, 

1-10. 

Verses 1, 2. See note on i, 6, 1. 

3. Holdeth fast his integrity — As 
a soldier his shield, because his life is 
wrapped up in it. Movedst me — For 
the test and maturing of the godly 
character of men, the devices of Sa- 
tan are tolerated in the divine scheme. 
To destroy him without cause — 
li This points to a very important rule in 
the divine administration, according to 
which the cause of a destructive temp- 
tation is something in a man's self — a 
sin, for example, leading on to a larger 
and larger. There was no such cause 
in Job why he should be tempted to 
destruction." — Chalmers. The bias of 
the heart to any peculiar sin invites 
trial or temptation ; while the cherish- 
ing of secret sin subsequently lands us 
in a larger temptation. The metallic 
rock hidden in the earth attracts not 
one, but many lightning strokes. The 
strokes of trial, in the mercy of God, 
are meant not to scathe, but to burn 
out the subtle springs of sin's disease. 
That the malicious aspersions of Satan 
may be confounded, and Job become 
an exemplar to the Church in all ages, 
God is moved, of his own free will, to 
permit the trial of Job, though vrithout 
cause. 

4. Skin for skin — Among the con- 
flicting interpretations of this difficult 
verse are, first, that a man will readily 
give the skin, that is, the life of others 
for his own skin or life. Just as by 
"life for life," in Exod. xxi, 23, is meant 
the giving of one life for another, Job 



thou considered my servant Job, that 
there is none like him in the earth, c a 
perfect and an upright man, one that 
feareth God, and escheweth evil? and 
still he d holdeth last his integrity, al- 
though thou movedst me against him, 
1 e to destroy him without cause. 4 And 
Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin 
for skin, yea, all that a man hath will 



lHeb. to swallow Mm up. — -eChap. 9. 17. 



would gladly yield up every thing — 
property, friends, relatives even, (so 
Satan meant to say,) if so be that his 
own precious life might be preserved. 
Such sacrifice, Satan insinuates, is no 
proof of godly fear; it is no more than 
what any one else would do under like 
circumstances. Touch his own life, and 
we shall see how he will curse thee. 
The second theory may be called that 
of mercantile exchange, as if the pass- 
age read ''like for like," "an equiva- 
lent for an equivalent," "as one dead 
thing (—skin) resembles another dead 
thing." — Ewald. Thus so long as Job 
keeps his life, he is only half tried. 
Hitzig also interprets : One gives skin 
for skin; that is, every thing has its 
price, but a man will take nothing, and 
will give every thing, for his life: as 
in a storm the most precious freight is 
cast into the sea that the human freight 
may be saved. The Jewish exposi- 
tors take the meaning to be, One gives 
up skin to preserve skin; that is. parts 
with a diseased limb for the sake of 
the rest; "one holds up the arm," as 
Raschi suggests, "to avert the fatal 
blow from the head." Third. Olshausen 
makes the saying to hinge upon the 
idea of person : "As long as thou leav- 
est his person untouched, he will leave 
thee personally unassailed." Renan re- 
gards it as a proverb, the sense of which 
is, that man is only moderately sensible 
to exterior losses, which do not touch 
his person. Fourth. Carey's view is, 
that the proverb contains a sort of re- 
ductio ad absurdum argument, thus: 
Never expect a, man to part with his skin 
unless you supply him with another ; 
an impossible condition, and therefore 
equivalent to never expect that a man 
will part with his skin on any condi- 
tions whatever; in other words, On 
no terms will a man part with his life. 



28 



JOB. 



he give for his life. 5 f But put forth 
thine hand now, and touch his g bone 
and his flesh, and he will curse thee 
to thy face. 6 h And the Lord said 



/Chap. 1. 11. cChap. 19. 



To save his life, a man will part with 
every thing else. Fifth. A writer in 
Jour, of Sac. Literature, (January, 1859, 
p. 337) discards the idea of a proverb. 
He would translate 1^3, around or 

about, instead of for, as it is in i, 10. 
The idea then would be, skin around 
skin, (meaning a succession of skins,) 
yea, all that a man hath around him- 
self, will he surrender ; but put forth 
thine hand now, and reach unto his 
bone and flesh. (Comp. Job x, 11.) The 
first of these opinions, which is also 
substantially that of Vaihinger, Dill- 
mann, Heiligstedt, Canon Cook, etc., is 
unquestionably the most satisfactory. 
It is in keeping with the malicious as- 
persion upon human virtue that inau- 
gurated the preceding trials, and is a 
charge of basal inhumanity upon our 
whole race. The selfish feelings, it 
means to say, are ever uppermost in 
man's heart. The stoicism that Job 
has already shown is proof that he 
cares not if his whole family perish, so 
iong as he can keep a whole skin. 

5. Touch his bone — Among the 
most painful diseases are those that 
have their seat in the bone. Job touch- 
ingly refers to this feature of his dis- 
ease. (Chap, xxx, 17, 30.) The associa- 
tion of yjj, touch, with ^tf, (into or even 
to,) rather than 2, as in chapter i, 11, 

Delitzsch has well remarked, " express- 
es increased malignity.'' 

6. In thine hand — "God did not 
himself smite Job lest Satan should 
carpingly say, Thou hast spared and not 
tried him to the utmost." — Chrysostom. 
But save his life — Only (margin) 
spare his life ; i^DJ, naphsho ; accord- 
ing to others, Ms soul, that which gives 
life. Apart from its union with the 
spirit, there is no life of the body. 
(James ii, 26.) According to Maimon- 
ides, (in Moreh,) G-od stipulated that 
his mind should not be touched, be- 
cause it is of divine substance. " This 



unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand ; 
2 but save his life. 7 So went Satan 
forth from the presence of the Lord, and 
smote Job with sore boils ' from the sole 



7i Chap. 1. 12. 2 Or, only. 



limiting of his power — that the mind 
should be spared," the Talmud says, 
" was more grievous to Satan than to 
Job. As if one should permit the 
breaking of a flask on the condition 
that the wine be preserved." The 
meaning here, however, must, as in 
verse 4, be "life." 

7. Sore boils — The word |T}£?, trans- 
lated boils, in the verbal form signifies 
to be hot. Dr. Good, a learned physician, 
translates it "a burning ulceration." 
That it was terrible is indicated by the 
addition of the word jn, rail, evil, or 

malignant. The features of the disease 
with which Job was afflicted most re- 
semble the black leprosy, or elephanti- 
asis, as it is called by the Greeks. It 
takes the latter name from its render- 
ing the skin " scabrous, dark-coloured, 
and furrowed all over with tubercles," 
(Dr. Good;) or, as others say, because 
in some of its stages the feet swell, 
and take the shape of those of the ele- 
phant. The Arabians and Syrians call 
it the lion disease, (leontiasis,) because 
of its producing in the countenance of 
the afflicted grim, distorted, and lion- 
like features. It is regarded as the 
most foul, painful, and incurable of all 
diseases. "It begins beneath the 
knee" (W. Scholtze) with tubercular 
boils, which, in time, resemble a can- 
cer, and thence spreads itself over the 
whole body. In its slow and destruc- 
tive course all the members of the body, 
fingers, toes, hands, feet, gradually de- 
cay and fall off, on which account the 
Arabians call it alsd the maiming dis- 
ease. The dread the disease inspires 
appears in the title it bears throughout 
the East — "the first-born of death." 
Its victim, even the Icelanders, among 
whom it prevails, say, resembles "a 
rancid, putrefying corpse." Maundrell, 
an old but judicious Oriental traveller, 
describes the "distemper as so noisome 
that it might well pass for the utmost 
corruption of the human body on this 



CHAPTER II. 



29 



of his foot unto his crown. 8 And he 
took him a potsherd to scrape himself 



k 2 Sam. 13.19; chap. 42. 



side the grave." The features and 
course of the disease may be traced in 
the incidental descriptions given by 
Job hi. 24; vi, 2, 4, 9, 11-14; vii, 4, 5, 
14. 15, 19; ix, 17, 18 ; xiii, 20, 27, 28; 
xvi, 8, 16, 22; xvii, 1; xix, 17, 18, 20; 
xxx, 17, 30; xxxiii, 20. The entire 
diagnosis thus given answers to the 
elephantiasis. 

8. Potsherd — The Septuagint ren- 
ders, " And he took a shell to scrape 
away the ulcerous discharge, and sat 
upon a dungheap outside the city." 
As the sores were too loathsome to 
touch, he took a piece of earthenware, 
(potsherd, or shard — Old English for 
fragment.) that he might remove the 
filth of the sores, and allay the ex- 
treme itching. Among the ashes— 
In the Hauran, dung being unneeded 
for agricultural purposes, is burned 
from time to time in an appointed 
place outside the town. The heaps of 
ashes and filth soon attain a height 
greater than that of the highest build- 
ings of the village. — Wetzstein. Some- 
thing of this kind the Septuagint may 
have had in view. This act of Job 
was. among the Orientals, a common 
symbol of extreme distress. Ulysses, 
after suffering shipwreck, placed him- 
self mourning on a heap of ashes. 
Odyssey, v, 153, 160. (See note, xvi, 15.) 
Job, not unlike his divine Saviour, is 
the smitten of God. (Isa. liii, 4.) Lep- 
rosy was regarded by the ancients as 
a divine visitation. The Hebrews 
named it, " The stroke of the scourge," 
a meaning that our own word plague 
(" stroke ") originally bore. Hence Je- 
rome translates Isaiah, (chapter liii, 4,) 
" We did esteem him smitten " — by le- 
prosus, — or the leprous one, a name the 
Messiah bears also in the Talmud. 
Christ •' bare our sins in his own body," 
and on this account ' ; there was a hid- 
ing of faces from him," as from a lep- 
rous person. (Isa. liii, 3, margin.) Job. 
a type of Christ, is to all appearance 
rejected of God. The ban of God and 
man alike rests upon him. '"If a Per- 
sian has the leprosy he is not allowed 



withal ; k and he sat down among the 
9 Then said his wife unto 



Ezek. 27. 30; Matt. 11. 21. 



to enter into a city, or to have any 
dealings with the other Persians; he 
must, they say, have sinned against 
the sun." — Herodotus, i, 139. (See note, 
xix, 21.) 

9. His wife — There is an old tradi- 
tion among the Jews, which also ap- 
pears in the Chaldee Paraphrast, that 
his wife was Dinah, the frail daughter 
of Jacob. This is of value only as 
showing an ancient belief that Job 
lived in the patriarchal age. This un- 
fortunate woman, who had not the liv- 
ing faith of her husband, and, who, per- 
haps, did not believe in his God, has 
been bitterly denounced in every age, 
and has given point to many a stinging 
epigram from the days of the German 
Alters to Coleridge. " Why," asks 
Chrysostom, "did the devil leave him 
this wife? Because he thought her a 
good scourge by which to plague him 
more acutely than by any other." Au- 
gustine calls her the "helper of the 
devil;" Ebrard, "a tool of the tempt- 
er ; " Spanheim, " a second Xantip- 
pe ; " Calvin, (cited by Delitzsch,) 
"Proserpina, an infernal fury;" and 
J. D. Michaelis thinks she alone re- 
mained to Job in order that the meas- 
ure of his sufferings might be full. 
Among others. Kitto {Daily Bib. lllus.) 
and Hengstenberg have taken a more 
pleasing view of the woman, whom 
others seem to have forgotten was a 
sufferer who had been as terribly be- 
reaved as Rachel herself. (Jer. xxxi, 15.) 
"It must be taken into consideration 
that her despair was rooted in the 
heartiest and tenderest love to her hus- 
band. In all their previous losses she 
had allowed herself to be kept in re- 
straint by Job's own submissiveness, 
and had the pains of disease befallen 
herself, she would probably still have 
resisted her despair." — Hexgst., Lee. 
on Job. It was a favourite thought 
with the fathers that as Satan had suc- 
cessfully employed woman for the ruin 
of man in Paradise, he feels sure of 
success in this, his last stake, as he 
wields the same instrument against 



30 



JOB. 



him, J Dost thou still m retain thine in- 
tegrity ? curse God, and die. 10 But 
he said unto her, Thou speakest as one 

I Chapter 21. 15. m Verse 3. 

Job in the ashes. [This note is rich in 
suggestions, but does not, we think, 
touch the irue point. The course of 
Job's wife is given to complete the 
ideal of misery and temptation. Ruin 
is all around Job, and there is no stay 
for him in that last, nearest, tenderest 
resource, the wife of his bosom. — Ed.] 
Curse God . . . die— (See ch. i, 5.) She 
evidently alludes to what Job had said, 
(i, 21,) and, strangely enough, employs 
the very words that the tempter had 
expected Job would use as he sank in 
despair. By Ewald, among others, the 
expression is taken as ironical, " say 
farewell to God, and die;" by others 
(Rosenmuller, Hirtzel) as an insolent 
and defiant demand, "Renounce God, 
and die." Schultens suspects it to have 
been a common saying among spare 
worshippers of the Deity of that day, 
like that of the Latin, "Eat, drink: 
to-morrow we die." It practically said, 
Religion is of no account. Such senti- 
ments prevail under visitations of the 
plague and kindred calamities. Thu- 
cydides thus moralizes over the plague 
at Athens : " Men were restrained nei- 
ther by fear of the gods nor by human 
law ; deeming it all one whether they 
paid religious worship or not, since 
they saw that all perished alike." The 
wife of Job is now swept away into a 
similar maelstrom. The Septuagint in- 
forms us " that much time had passed " 
when she uttered these taunting words, 
"Curse God, and die;" and. displeased 
at the idea that an angry woman should 
say so little, puts a long speech into 
her mouth, recounting her sufferings, 
and closing with the tame words, "but 
say some word against the Lord, and 
die." 

10. As one of the foolish women 

— fli?2J, perverse, corrupt, or godless 

women; having respect not so much 
to the want of intellectual as of moral 
qualities. The word is one of the 
strongest in Hebrew, and is used to 
express utter worthlessness. It is to 



of the foolish women speaketh. What ! 
n shall we receive good at the hand 
of God, and shall we not receive evil ? 

n Chap. 1. 21 ; Rom. 12. 12 ; James 5. 10. 11. 



be remarked that Job does not charge 
his wife with being such, but with 
talking like such women. There is no 
evidence that Job sympathized with 
those mean views of woman that the 
Orientals cherish even to the present 
day, and which the Koran has done so 
much to promote. It is evident from 
the Vedas and the Gathas, her position 
was vastly more honourable in the ear- 
lier ages ofthe world. (See Wilkinson's 
Egypt P. A. i, 4, and Bleeck's Avesta, 
ii, 118.) It is equally clear that she 
and her condition every-where, under 
the influence of the best of pagan re- 
ligions, have been constantly deteri- 
orating. Between three and four thou- 
sand years ago, woman, whether in 
Egypt, Persia, or India, at home or 
abroad, was as free as Trojan dame or 
the daughters of Judea. She was the 
honoured of man — nearly, if not alto- 
gether, his equal; now, every-where in 
the East she is the spurned of man 
— a mere tool, if not a slave. The In- 
stitutes of Manu early struck the key- 
note of woman's sad declension through- 
out the East: "Women have no busi- 
ness with the texts of the Vedas. . . . 
Even if a husband be devoid of good 
qualities, or enamoured of another wom- 
an, yet must he be revered as a god by 
a virtuous wife." Chap, ix, 2, 3, etc. 
(See also Muir's Sanscrit Texts', i, 26; 
iii, 42, 68.) That woman is not trodden 
in the dust in Christian as in eastern 
countries, is due to the conserving and 
equalizing doctrines of the cross. (Comp. 
John xix, 26, and Gal. hi, 28. See also 
notes on 1 Cor. xiv, 34, 35.) Shall 
we not receive evil — As beings 
worth disciplining for another life, each 
one may assume that the elements of 
evil will, sooner or later, be wrought 
into his mortal life. His sinful condi- 
tion should lead him to the reflection 
that more of evil than good might be 
his reasonable allotment. If there be, 
on the contrary, a preponderance of 
good, it is simply due to the goodness 
of God. The heathen themselves could 



CHAPTER II. 



31 



°In all this did not Job p sin with his 
lips. 

11 Now when Job's three q friends 
heard of all this evil that was come 
upon him, they came every one from 



o Chap. 1. 22. v Psa. 30. 1. q Prov. 17. 17. 

/-Gen. 3(5. 11; Jer. 49. 7. 

see that evil may subserve the most 
desirable ends, and, by pruning; the 
soul, prepare it for the higher good. 
Thus Plutarch: "It is likely that the 
Deity perfectly understands the condi- 
tion of the soul to whose disease his 
justice is to be applied, whether it is 
such as is inclined to repentance. . . . 
He knows how much of the virtue 
which he gave them at their birth they 
still retain, and in what degree that in 
them which is noble still remains, as 
not having been obliterated, but merely 
overgrown by evil education and bad 
connexions, and may be restored to its 
natural habit by due attention." — Prov- 
idence of God, book vi. The storm has 
swept over Job as over an oak of the 
mountain. He still stands majestical- 
ly, the roots of his faith having struck 
more deeply, and grasped more firmly, 
the Rock of Ages. Sin with his lips 
— St. James, who dwelt at large upon 
the right use of the tongue, makes 
such reference to Job as to show that 
he must have had in mind the respon- 
sibility implied in these and similar 
words of this book. As language is 
but the vehicle of thought, and may 
readily become the winged promoter of 
that which is evil, God holds even 
words to solemn account. (Matt, xii, 
36, 37.) In the present age, as facili- 
ties for doing good or evil through the 
tongue, pen, press, or electric wire are 
so much multiplied, our responsibility 
is correspondingly increased. 

The Visit of Consolation, 11-13. 
11. Three friends — Their conduct, 
as seen in this verse, shows them 
to have been sincere in their friend- 
ship at first, however they ma}' have 
failed and become subsequently in- 
volved in angry dispute and bitter re- 
criminations. Eliphaz the Teman- 
ite — The word Eliphaz signifies " G-od 
the dispenser of riches." (Fiirst,) or, 
according to J. D. Michaelis, "My God 



his own place ; Eliphaz the r Tcman- 
ite, and Bildad the s Shuhite. and Zo- 
phar the Naamathite : for they had 
made an appointment together to come 
'to mourn with him, and to comfort 

s Genesis 25. 2. £ Chapter 42. 11; Roraaus 

12. 15. 

is gold." Since an Eliphaz appears in 
Gen. xxxvi, 4, 11, as one of the sons 
of Esau, and the father of Teman, wo 
are justified in supposing that the home 
of Eliphaz was in the Idumaean region 
bearing that name. (1 Chron. i, 43, 45.) 
Teman was probably the capital of 
Edora, (Amos i, 12.) and lay, according 
to Eusebius, fifteen Roman miles from 
Petra, Or, more probably, about five 
miles, as in Jerome. "This part of 
Arabia always had the most excellent 
philosophers." — G-roiius. (See Jeremi- 
ah xlix, 7 ; Baruch iii, 22.) The Sep- 
tuagint calls Eliphaz the king of the 
Thaemars. Bildad the Shuhite — 
So called after a national deity of the 
Edomites, according to Eiirst, though 
Gesenius {Thesaurus) renders the name, 
the Strenuous Defender. The Septuagint 
makes him the ruler of the Sanchseans. 
Shuah was the youngest son of Ketu- 
rah by Abraham, (Gen. xxv, 2,) who 
sent Shuah and the other children 
of the concubines " eastward into the 
east country." The Shuhites probably 
dwelt not far from Edom, though Raw- 
linson conjectures that they may have 
been the Tsukhi, w r ho dwelt on the 
northern confines of Babylon, both sides 
of the Euphrates. (Herodotus, i, p. 380.) 
Zophar the Naamathite — Zophar.the 
shaggy, the rough, (Fiirst.) The place of 
his residence is uncertain. It could not 
have been the Xaamah spoken of in 
Joshua xv, 41. The Septuagint calls 
him the king of the Minieans. This 
leads Dillmann to suggest the identity 
of Xaamah with Maan, an ancient city 
whose ruins still remain, somewhat to 
the east of Petra. (Comp. Ewald, Hist, 
of Israel, i, 239.) An appointment to- 
gether — When a calamity befalls a 
family among the Arabs of the present 
day, all their relations, connexions, 
and friends immediately hasten togeth- 
er to console them. — Pierotti. Cus- 
toms, p. 240. To mourn with him — 
"HJ, itoudJi; English, nod, to shake (the 



32 



JOB. 



him. 12 And when they lifted up \ toward heaven. 13 So they sat down 

with him upon the ground v seveu days 
and seven nights, and none spake a 
word unto him : for they saw that his 
grief was very great. 



their eyes afar off, and knew him not. 
thev lifted up their voice, and wept; 
and they rent every one his mantle, 
and u sprinkled dust upon their heads 



-wNeh. 9. 1; Lam. 2. 10; 



head.) Among highly excitable races 
deep grief is expressed by the move- 
ment of the head. 

12. They lifted up their voice — 
Sir John Chardin (year 1676) says of 
the people of Asia, that "their cries 
are long in the case of death, and 
frightful, for the mourning is right- 
down despair, and an image of hell." 
The moment the mistress of the house 
next to his (at Ispahan) expired, " all 
the family, to the number of twenty- 
five or thirty people, set up such a fu- 
rious cry that I was quite startled, and 
was above two hours before I could 
recover myself. These cries continue 
a long time, then cease all at once; 
they begin again as suddenly at day- 
break, and in concert. It is this sud- 
denness which is so terrifying, togeth- 
er with a greater shrillness and loud- 



Ezek. 27. 



i Gen. 50. 10. 



ness than one could easily imagine. 
This enraged kind of mourning, if I 
may call it so, continued forty days — 
not equally violent, but with diminu- 
tion from day today." Sprinkled dust 
upon their heads — In a funeral pro- 
cession, depicted on one of the tombs 
of ancient Egypt, there first come eight 
men throwing dust upon their heads, 
and giving other demonstrations of 
grief. The procession closes with 
eight or more women beating them- 
selves, throwing dust on their heads, 
and singing the funeral dirge. — Wilkin- 
son. (See also Josh, vii, 6 ; 1 Sam. iv, 12.) 
"For after the death of any of them, 
[the Egyptians,] all the friends and 
kindred of the deceased throw dirt up- 
on their heads, and run about through 
the city mourning and lamenting." — 
Diodorus Siculus, vol. i, chap. vii. A like 




MOURNERS THROWING DtTST ON THE HEAD. 



custom prevailed among the Greeks 
(Iliad, xviii, 21-27) and the Ninevites, 
as appears in the annals of Assurban- 
ipal. The friends threw the dust heav- 
enward, that, falling, it might cover the 
entire body ; and thus, as Homer says, 
" deform it with dust ; " or the act may 
have been symbolical — being either a 



solemn recognition of God, as the au- 
thor of the evil, or an acknowledgment 
of man's frailty and dependence. 

1 3. Seven days and seven nights 
— The Orientals not only bemoaned the 
event of death for a period of seven 
days, (GTen. 1, 10, Ecclesiasticus xxii, 1 2.) 
but other calamities — those of a na- 



CHAPTER II. 



33 



tional, (Ezek. iii, 15.) and, as in this case, 
those of a more private, character. The 
"Bedawi Romance of Antar" thus de- 
scribes the lamentation of the tribes of 
Abs and Adnam over their great dis- 
comfiture, and the many kings and 
chiefs that had been slain in battle: 
"They threw down their tents and 
pavilions, and thus they continued sev- 
en days and seven nights." The ob- 
sequies of a Jewish king were cele- 
brated with peculiar honours : " among 
others," says Maimonides, "a company 
of students in the law were appointed 
to sit at his sepulchre, and to mourn 
seven days together." (Cited by Lewis, 
Antiq., iii, 88.) Dillmann, Hirtzel, and 
others, deny that custom prescribed a 
seven days' silence. This they attrib- 
ute to their compassion and awe for 
his sorrow. The counter view of Ewald 
and Rosenmuller, that such mourning 
was in conformity with the custom of 
the times, may be illustrated by a sim- 
ilar usage that to the present time pre- 
vails among the Hindus: " Those who 
go to sympathize with the afflicted are 
often silent for hours together. As 
there were seven days for mourning in 
the Scriptures, so here, and the seventh 
is always the greatest, the chief mourn- 
er, during the whole of these days, will 
never speak, except when it is abso- 
lutely necessary. When a visitor comes 
in, he simply looks and bows down his 
head." — Roberts, Orient. Illus. The 
Rabbins tell us that among the Jews 
the mourner always sat chief; and the 
comforters, who were the neighbours, 
were not to speak a word till he broke 
silence first. — Lewis, Ibid. 



EXCURSUS No. I. 

SA.TAN. 

This word Satan — Septuagint, dia- 
bolos, "devil " — is a word purely Semit- 
ic, (Arabic, Shatanah,) signifying "ad- 
versary," and is from the same form, 
JBJp, Satan, "to attack," "lie in wait," 

" hate.'' It is used in Job and in Zech- 
atiah with the article, "the Satan," ei- 
ther for emphasis, " the adversary " pre- 
emiueutlv. (for the word appears else- 
Vol." V.— 4 



where a few times as a designation of 
human beings,) or, more properly, as a 
proper name of a being at that time 
well known. 

He first appears in Scripture under 
the guise of the serpent, (a name he af- 
terwards bears,) as the agent in en- 
compassing man's fall. On the reason- 
able supposition that Adam, in his sub- 
sequent reflections if not in the hour 
of his temptation, must have peered 
through this bestial disguise and appre- 
hended the super bestial agency in- 
volved in the act of intelligent speech, 
we may presume that the being of 
this profoundly mysterious adversary 
must have as deeply impressed the de- 
scendants of Adam as any other of the 
antediluvian facts whose traditions still 
linger among men. The Arabs, for in- 
stance, still " call a serpent Satan, es- 
pecially if he be conspicuous in the 
crest, the head, and repulsive looks." 
— Schultens. There are very few, if 
any, of the essential characteristics of 
the Satan of this book that are not to 
be found in the diabolic actor in the 
garden. So that the serious objection 
urged by some against the antiquity of 
the Rook of Job because of its "full- 
fledged Satan," as they are pleased to 
call this most malicious enemy of our 
race, is contradicted by this, perhaps, 
earliest of all records. And it may be 
as easy to account for the fact that du- 
ring the many centuries included in the 
Book of Genesis no further mention is 
made of Satan, as for the silence re- 
specting the actual instrument in be- 
guiling Eve. A detailed comparison 
of the two Satans of Genesis and Job 
would show them to be not only one in 
being but in the amount of disclosure 
of character made, and that the sup- 
posed progress of doctrine in regard to 
Satan is without a valid basis. 

A general knowledge of this evil 
spirit is implied in the Azazel of Le- 
viticus, chapter xvi, translated scape- 
goat, who is represented as the an- 
tithesis to God, which necessitates a 
spiritual personality — "a personifica- 
tion of abstract impurity as opposed to 
the absolute purity of Jehovah." — 
Roskoff. The very desert to which the 
goat •' to Azazel" was to be sent, was 
O. T. 



34 



JOB. 



in the popular belief the home of evil 
spirits. (Isa. xiii, 21; xxxiv, 14.) This 
view of Azazel as Satan is confirmed 
by the etymology of the word Azaz-el, 
the might or "power of God," (Fiirst 
and Gesenius,) perhaps the name of 
the evil spirit before his fall, (compare 
Gabri-el,) or " defiance to God," anoth- 
er etymology suggested by Gesenius. 
{Thesaurus, 1012.) Origen declared 
Azazel to be the devil. (See Hengsten- 
berg's "Egypt and the Books of Moses," 
159-174.) 

In 1 Chronicles xxi, 1, Satan (with- 
out the article) " stands up against 
Israel," and that he may involve a 
whole nation in the wrath of God, per- 
suades its royal head into the pride and 
presumption of numbering the people. 
The Satan is here disclosed as oper- 
ating within the domain of the mind, 
and moving mind directly by solicita- 
tions from luithin. This is the most 
important disclosure of the Old Testa- 
ment with regard to Satanic agency. 

The same idea of adversary appears 
in Zechariah hi, 1, where Satan stands 
as accuser (Rev. xii, 10, narr/jof)) at 
the right hand of the high priest — the 
proper place of an accuser — and antag- 
onizes (literally, Satanizes) him in his 
official capacity of bearing the sins of 
the people before the Lord. 

In these four chief places of the 
Old Testament where Satan is dis- 
closed we have, therefore, a oneness 
and consistency of character answer- 
ing to the generic meaning of the 
word Satan. The position of adversary 
to such a being as God, makes pos- 
sible aU that the Bible reveals of his 
nature. He stands at the head of fall- 
en beings, who, in the New Testament, 
are called demons, dat/xovia — the one 
great, powerful, and infinitely malicious 
personality, who, for some reasons not 
fully revealed, seeks the injury and ruin 
of our race — an object of overwhelming 
terror unless restrained by the grace 
and power of God. In the New Testa- 
ment he bears the names Satan, Beel- 
zebub, Belial; and the titles "devil," 
(SidBoXog;) "slanderer, "(one who sets at 
variance ;) the " wicked one ; " " prince of 
this world;" the "destroyer;" "prince 
of the demons," (tuv daiiiovicov, Mark 



iii, 22;) "prince of the power of the 
air;" "lord of the dwelling;" "worth- 
lessness," or "wickedness;" and is the 
author of evil, John viii, 44, the enemy 
of mankind, Matt, xiii, 39, and the 
tempter of the faithful, 1 Thess. iii, 5. 
Satan is a created spirit, subordinate in 
every sphere to God, and destined to 
be subjugated by Christ, and has but 
little in common with the dualistic con- 
ception of an evil spirit coeternal and 
coequal with the good. The disclo- 
sures concerning our great foe are con- 
fined to the word of God. Traces, in- 
deed, there are, in the most ancient 
mythologies, that plainly reach back to 
the garden of Eden, of a spirit preemi- 
nently evil, but they are so overgrown 
with puerile conceptions of suryas, devs, 
fervers, etc., that the scriptural idea of 
Satan is almost lost. The evil spirit 
most nearly resembling the Satan of the 
Old Testament is Set, or Tvphon, of the 
Egyptian mythology. Under the ascrip- 
tion of an " adversary," he is invoked 
on a papyrus as " the god who is in the 
void, the almighty destroyer and wast- 
er." — Dollinger, Gentile and Jeiv, i, 
453. The features of resemblance on 
the part of Set, or the Yritra of the 
Vedas, Tiamat of the Babylonians, An- 
gra Mainyus (Ahriman) of the Avesta, 
or Loki of the Scandinavians, are too 
few to need notice. See pp. 211, 278. 

EXCURSUS No. II. 

Satan among the Sons of God. 

The confessedly strange scene of Sa- 
tan in the midst of "the sons of God" 
has called forth various theories : — 

1. That it is to be regarded as a mere 
vision, after the manner of the vision 
of Micaiah. (1 Kings xxii, 19.) 

2. That the scene has not even the 
basis of a vision, but God employs the 
figure of an earthly court in accommo- 
dation to our ideas of things. Accord- 
ing to Mercerus, while "engaged in 
their ministry the angels cease not to 
stand before the Lord. They are said, 
after a human way, to return to him 
when they praise him, ' ' etc. Quaint Job 
Caryl, the most copious of the many 
writers on this book, takes this view : 
" This I say, God doth here after the 



CHAPTER II. 



35 



manner of men ; for, otherwise, we are 
not to conceive that God doth make 
certain days of session with his crea- 
tures, wherein he doth call the good 
and bad angels together about the af- 
fairs of the world. "We must not have 
such gross conceits of God; for he 
needs receive no information from 
them, neither doth he give them or 
Satan any formal commission ; neither 
is Satan admitted into the presence of 
God, to come so near God at any time ; 
neither is God moved at all. by the slan- 
ders of Satan, or by his accusations, to 
deliver up his children and servants in- 
to his hands for a moment; but only 
the Scripture speaks thus to teach us 
how God carries himself in the affairs 
of the world, even as if he sat upon his 
throne, and called every creature be- 
fore him, and gave each directions 
what and when and where to work, 
how far and which way to move in 
every action." Kitto {Daily Bib. Illust 
in loc.) endorses this view. 

3. That the Satan, here, is a good 
spirit, to whom has been assigned the 
work of trying and proving men. This 
was the opinion of Dathe, Eichhorn, 
Schultens, and Herder. The last men- 
tioned regarded him as a kind of censor 
morum, or an attorney or solicitor gen- 
eral. (Stauts-Anivalt Gottes.) This view, 
which savours more of trifling than of 
serious discourse, is destined to a like 
fate with that of Dathe, of which Gese- 
nius says it is now universally exploded. 

4. That his presence is tolerated as 
a culprit, or as a transgressor as yet 
unexposed except to God himself. Thus 
St. Augustine, (Serm. in loc): "Satan 
was in the midst of the good angels, 
even as a criminal stands in the midst 
of bailiffs awaiting judgment." De- 
litzsch suggests, "that Satan here ap- 
pears among the good spirits, resem- 
bling Judas Iscariot among the disci- 
ples until his treachery was revealed." 
This thought Birks {Difficulties of Be- 
lief p. 99) expands : "If Judas remained 
long undetected among the twelve apos- 
tles, it is conceivable that the crime of 
the arch deceiver may have remained 
concealed for a time except from the 
eye of the Omniscient alone. We may 
conceive that the adversary was still 



permitted to appear among the sons of 
God, and to seek, in the courts of heav- 
en itself, to veil his dark malice under 
the show of a zeal for the divine jus- 
tice, and his fraudulent temptations un- 
der the specious show of genuine be- 
nevolence towards angels and men." 
A plausible theory ! but one requiring 
that the temptation of Job should have 
taken place prior to the fall of man; 
for at that time the character of Satan 
must have been fully revealed. 

Another theory is that of Dachsel : 
" Satan appears among the children of 
God before the Lord, on the one part, 
because all his hostile doing stands un- 
der God's holy will and his permission, 
... on the other part, because Satan 
and his angels have a right to accuse 
believers before the Lord as long as an 
unforgiven sin remains in the Church 
of God. Rev. xii, 10." (See also De- 
litzsch, under verse 9, who maintains 
the same view.) 

The gist of this whole difficulty lies 
in the problem of the place where the 
scene transpired. The intimation that 
Satan could have insinuated himself in- 
to the heaven of the sainted dead is a 
pure assumption, at once contrary to 
the entire analogy of the Scriptures 
and offensive to our thoughts. The 
subject has been embarrassed by the 
too limited view taken of the dominion 
of God. The innumerable company 
{(ivpiadee) of angels, (Heb. xii, 22,) may 
be assigned to divers worlds, and sub- 
jected to different economies of the di- 
vine government. Under some one of 
these, the visible appearing of Satan 
may be no more abnormal than is his 
invisible presence in kindred assem- 
blages in this world. ["We do not be- 
lieve in the historic reality of this scene. 
Like Milton's dialogue between the dif- 
ferent persons of the Trinity, it is the 
expression of great truths in dramatic 
form. "We take the whole scene to be 
neither a vision nor a reality, but a dra- 
matic conception. It is presented as an 
illustrative unveiling behind the scenes 
of the mystery of providence. Satan, 
the Evil, and God, the Good, are intro- 
duced face to face, in order to raise the 
question of the great antithesis of the 
Evil and the Good in the world. — Ed.] 



36 



JOB. 



A 



CHAPTER III. 

FTER this opened Job his mouth, 



1 Hebrew, 



CHAPTER III. 
The Lamentation. 
1. After this — With the close of the 
Historical Introduction, Satan, as an 
open actor, disappears from the scene ; 
the supernatural passes into abeyance ; 
and we are for awhile left alone with 
Job, notwithstanding his friends still 
sit by in formal etiquette, and with 
professional sympathy. Faith has been 
triumphant in every conflict, and the 
very language of the original, and of 
our own beautiful English version, 
seems to partake of the spirit prevail- 
ing around — the calmness and seren- 
ity of the victory towards which all 
had tended. We are as little prepared 
for the impending violent outburst of 
grief and despair, as Job was for the 
storm that destroyed his family and 
home. A dyke may for a long time 
hold the vast volumes of a flood in 
check, only to make the devastation the 
more disastrous when once it breaks 
away. Such is the flood, long kept 
back by the power of faith, that now 
bursts forth. We are borne along amid 
the wreck of broken thoughts, strug- 
gling images, and impassioned cries. 
It is the one lamentation of all litera- 
ture overwhelming us with its awful- 
ness, and leading us to grasp the rock 
that is higher than we. [These impas- 
sioned utterances of Job, while they 
are a formal opening of the discussion, 
are in some degree a continuance of 
the prologue, as furnishing, in Job's 
own language, a fuller presentation of 
his case. The sacred writer has narra- 
ted Job's successive deprivations in or- 
der to his being a specimen case of tried 
piety : Job now gives specimen expres- 
sion of the tried soul's agony under the 
trial, and thereby furnishes the start- 
ing-point of the discussion of the true 
nature and lesson of his case. As we 
have noted on the conduct of Job's 
wife, it is a point in the ideal of com- 
plete trial. Not until we have heard 
Job do we reach the subjective depths 
of his woe, correspondent to the objec- 



and cursed his day. 2 And Job 1 spake, 
and said, 



answered. 



tive inflictions. The case will then be 
fully before us, and the triad of "com- 
forters " open the debate.] The lamen- 
tation divides itself, according to Halm, 
into, first, a wild cursing of life, which 
has brought this calamity; vers. 3-10. 
Second, an ardent desire for death, to 
bring him rest ; verses 11-19. Third, 
reproachful .questioning of life, if in- 
defd it must bring sorrow; vers. 20-26. 
Job opened his mouth — A formula 
used when a speech of more than usual 
gravity is expected. And cursed his 
day — His birthday. (Yerse 3 ; Hosea 
vii, 5.) He does not curse God. The 
issue made by Satan was, that he 
would " curse " (renounce) " God." The 

word here used is ppp, to speak ill, or 

make light of. — Gesenius. (See note on 
barak, to curse, or renounce, i, 5.) [Job's 
cursing the day must be viewed as sim- 
ply an Oriental glowering over his mis- 
ery, stopping at the second causes, and 
never dreaming of impeaching the di- 
vine First Cause. A logician might tell 
him that his words implicated the First 
Cause, and but for his paroxysm of woe 
he would be responsible ; buf he thinks 
no such implication. After the human 
probationary measure he is innocent — 
still "perfect;" but tried by the abso- 
lute, as he soon wiU be, he is guilty.'] 
Compare with this lament the more 
brief and polished, but less impressive, 
one of Jeremiah, (xx, 14-18,) which of 
all Scriptures more nearly approaches 
the solemnly majestic and tragic wail 
of Job ; and while " that of Jeremiah is 
milder, softer, and more plaintive, pecu- 
liarly calculated to excite pity, " (Lowth, 
Heo. Poet.,) it is evidently modelled af- 
ter this, the vastly older pattern. In this 
we are painfully affected by the intense 
subjectiveness of the protracted outcry 
which, better than any descriptive lan- 
guage, discloses the great deep of Job's 
misery. Dean Swift, at the height of his 
glory, upon the return of his birthday, 
was wont to "lament it" by repeating 
this chapter. — Roscoe's Life of Swift. 
2. Job spake — Hebrew, answered. 



CHAPTER III. 



37 



3 a Let the day perish wherein I was 
born, and the night in which it was said, 
There is a man child conceived. 4 Let 
that day be darkness ; let not God re- 



a Chap. 10. 18, 19 ; Jer. 15. 10 ; 20. 14. b Chap. 

10.21,22; IB. 16; 28. 3; Fsa. 23.4; 44. 19; 107. 
10, 14 ; Jer. 13. 16 ; Amos 5. 8. 



Not their words, but their thoughts, as 
he had divined them. Or it may have 
respect to the occurrences of the last 
seven days. (Comp. Matt, xi, 25.) Urn- 
breit regards the word as intensive, 
and intended to increase the force of 
the following word. 

First long strophe — Job Curses his 
Existence, 3-10. 

a. He curses his birthday, 3-5. 

3. Let the day perish — Literally, 
Perish the day ! I was to be born in it! 
Hitzig renders, \2. I^Ki in which I 

should be born. ' ' The speaker, by a bold 
figure, places himself before his birth, 
and prays that the day which was to 
give him existence might be annihi- 
lated, so that he might be saved from 
the misery of liviug." The fathers, 
who w r ere disposed to palliate this en- 
tire lamentation, call attention to the 
thought that it is the day of his birth, 
and not that of his prospective death, 
that he execrates; which Isidorus beau- 
tifully illustrates by the tears of Christ, 
"who wept," he says, "not so much 
that Lazarus had died, as that he must 
call back to waves and storms him who 
had reached the port, and bring again 
the crowned victor into the battle-field 
of life." And the night. . .it said — 
Not, in which it was said, w^hich takes 
away the startling abruptness of the 
original. Like a conscious existence, 
night personified has the power of 
speech. In the sublime conception of 
the poet, night makes report to the 
Most High of whatever takes place 
within its wide domain. The specu- 
lation is not unworthy of science, that 
all the deeds of the day are embodied 
in the reflected rays of light, from 
which they can never die out, at least 
so long as the light of the day contin- 
ues to shine on through infinite space. 
In a similar manner night has a voice. 
Psa. xix, 2. On w r hich Stier remarks : 
" We are to understand not merely 



gard it from above, neither let the light 
shine upon it. 5 Let darkness and b the 
shadow of death 2 stain it ; let a cloud 
dwell upon it ; 3 let the blackness of the 



2 Or, challenge it. 3 Or, let them terri- 
fy it, as thone who have a bitter day, Amos 
8.10. 



what we see by day and night in the 
heavens, but, as the expression natu- 
rally imports, (that is, if viewed without 
respect to the connexion,) the whole 
that is done by day and night under 
the heavens." A man child — i^j, 

literally, a man. The birth of a son 
was one of the three great occasions 
of festivity among the Arabs. The 
two others, according to Pococke, were 
the birth of a foal of valued race, and 
the rising up of a poetical genius in 
any of their tribes. (Spec. Hist. Ai\, 
pp. 160, 367.) 

4. Let . . . regard it— Literally, not seek 
it out, gh^. That is, not concern him- 
self about it ; " so that it may remain 
without light, on the supposition that 
each single day owes its light to an es- 
pecial care of God." — Dillrnann. 

5. The shadow of death — ]"lpf>¥ 

tsal-maweth, was regarded by the an- 
cients as one of the veiy few Hebrew 
compound words; but now, by De 
Dieu and many moderns, it is taken to 

be a derivative from QpV, to be dark. 

Compare Arabic, Zalima, of the same 
meaning. Ewald and Dillrnann point 
differently, and read tsalmouth, " black 
darkness;" the latter of whom looks 
upon the idea of shadow in connexion 
with sheol as a feeble w r ord to express 
the extreme darkness of Orcus, (Sheol.) 
Its gradational use here in connexion 
with darkness, as well as elsewhere in 
Scripture, (chapters x, 21; xxviii, 3; 
xxxiv, 22; Psa. cvii, 14,) points to its 
true meaning of deep and terrible dark- 
ness, such as the popular imagination 
in that day associated with the regions 
of the dead. It also appears in contra- 
distinction to light, (Job xii, 22 ;) as an 
attributive of sheol, (x, 21 ;) and in con- 
nexion with the gates of the world of 
the dead, (xxxviii, 17.) It is also used 
metaphorically for affliction, Job xvi, 1 6 ; 



38 



JOB. 



day terrify it. 6 As for that night, let 
darkness seize upon it; 4 let it not be 
joined unto the days of the year ; let 
it not come into the number of the 



4 Or, let it not rejoice among the days. 



and for evil and calamity, Psa. xliv, 19 ; 
Isa. ix, 2. On the supposition that.it 
is a compound word, the idea of 
'"'■shadow of death" may have sprung 
from the darkness so frequently no- 
ticed to creep over the sight of the dy- 
ing, which even now strikes terror, if 
so be at evening time it be not light. 
Zech. xiv, 7. (See note on Matthew 
iv, 16.) Stain it — pfcO, claim or redeem 

it, the common and accepted meaning 
of the word. Our translators, follow- 
ing the Targum, probably took their 

rendering from pyj, a kindred form of 

the word. The day of Job's birth was 
once their possession, (G-en. i, 2,) and 
as kinsmen the primeval darkness and 
chaos have a right to redeem and bring 
it back, as belonging to them, and not 
to the light. (Lev. xxv, 25.) Cloud 
dwell upon it — " Let the cloud pitch 
its tent over it." — Schultens. This is 
an image common among the Arabs, 
and is thus illustrated by Schultens 
from the Arabic history of Tamerlane : 
" And when the darkness of the night 
shall dissolve its tents, and the dawn, 
as if marching forth to banquet, shall 
unfold her banners." The blackness 
— v Tnft3, (from *|D3, "to be burnt," 

"to be black,") the darkenings or ob- 
scurations. The marginal rendering is 
that of Schultens, Mercer, etc. This is 
now of as little consideration as will be 
the proposed emendation of Hitzig, who 
changes the second "l into % thus mak- 
ing the expression similar to that of 
chap, xxiv, 13, (which see,) "like apos- 
tates from the light." This view, which 
is not original, Furst had already con- 
demned. The reading as above, "dark- 
enings of the day," is now generally 
accepted. Reference is supposed to 
be made to the darkness caused by an 
eclipse, which was thought by most 
ancient nations to forebode disaster. 
Thus Renan: "Let an eclipse fill it 
with terror." 



months. 7 Lo, let that night be soli- 
tary ; let no joyful voice come therein. 
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, 
c who are ready to raise up 5 their mourn- 



c Jer. 9. 17, 18. 5 Or, a leviathan. 



b. Jot curses the night of his concep- 
tion, 6-10. 

6. Darkness — ?£>x, darkness ex- 
ceedingly dense. A poetical word, ex- 
pressive of intenser gloom than 7|BTI- 

Compare Exod. x, 21. Let it not be 
joined — The marginal reading is more 
correct: "Let it not rejoice among the 
days of the year." The night is here 
personified, and conceived of as rejoic- 
ing in her course as well as the day. 
Compare the similar personification of 
the sun, Psa. xix, 5. "The night is 
not considered so much to rejoice on 
account of its own beauty ... as to 
form one of the joyous and triumphant 
choral troop of nights that come in, in 
harmonious and glittering procession." 
This view of Davidson is not sufficient- 
ly comprehensive, as appears from the 
following verse. The night that saw 
the beginning of his existence (his con- 
ception) should take upon itself the 
character of a mourner ; it should be 
clad in darkness; it should still its 
notes of rejoicing, and forever main- 
tain silence among its joyous kindred. 
The reader may compare the beautiful 
passage of Euripides : " Thee I invoke, 
thou self-created Being, who gavest 
birth to nature, and whom light and 
darkness, and the whole train of globes 
and planets, encircle with eternal 
music." 

7. Solitary — Tld?\, barren, as in 

Isa. xlix, 21. " It is a metaphor," says 
Gesenius, " taken from the hard, sterile, 
and stony soil.' 1 Let it be not only a 
night without Job's birth, but without 
any births. With the Arab the birth 
of male children was celebrated by 
feasts, dances, and songs. — Pococke, 
ibid., p. 160. That night, with the an- 
cient curse of barrenness upon it, is to 
sit solitary and alone, in unbroken si- 
lence, in the everlasting darkness. 

8. That curse the day — Cursers of 
the day. Pliny says of the Atlantes, 
(Herodotus calls them Atarantes,) that 



CHAPTER III. 



39 



as they look upon the rising and the set- 
ting- sun they give utterance to direful 
imprecations against it as being deadly 
to themselves and their lands. (Nat. 
Hist, book v, chap, viii.) Job does not 
refer to such, but to professional curs- 
ors, who imprecate evil on particular 
days. Superstition in the earliest times 
bad its sorcerers, who were believed to 
possess the power, through incanta- 
tions, of working injury to others. Ba- 
laam was summoned from his distant 
home to curse the people of Israel. 
Job invites those skilled in the art of 
cursing to join him in cursing that 
night. Raise up their mourning — 
Our version yields no intelligible mean- 
ing. The Septuagint renders the pas- 
sage, "he that is ready to attack the 
great whale," (or monster,) which is 
quite as meaningless. The original 
reads, skilled to rouse up the dragon, (Le- 
viathan.) This word, JJV1?, has been a 

stumbling-block to all translators. The 
Complutensian editors (of the first pol- 
yglott, 1517) left it without attempt- 
ing to translate it. Our own version, 
"their mourning," together with that 
of Piscator and Tyndal, probably fol- 
lowed the Chaldee paraphrase, which 
may have been suggested by the an- 
cient association of the profession of 
sorcery with professional mourning. 
They inferred that as the first clause 
of the verse meant sorcery, the second 
must mean "mourning." 1. Fiirst, in 
common with modern lexicographers, 
gives the ground-form of the word as 
that which wreathes, or gathers itself 
into folds. Hence one meaning of the 
word is serpent, since it moves it- 
self forward by folds. Umbreit and 
Yaihinger understand by the word a 
very large serpent. The art of charm- 
ing serpents is common through the 
East. The serpent, too, fills a large 
place in all mythologies. In the last 
Indian Avatar, as well as in the Eddas, 
the world is to be destroyed by a ser- 
pent vomiting flames. 2. According to 
Bochartus, Clerieus, Carey, etc., the 
word should be rendered crocodile. 
This animal was regarded by the an- 
cient Egyptians as the emblem of Ty- 
phon, the dark genius of their mythol- 



ogy. As it was in the shape of a croc- 
odile that Typhou eluded the pursuit 
of Horus, they set apart a particular 
day for the hunt of this animal. They 
killed as many of them as they could, 
and afterwards threw their dead bod- 
ies before the temple of their god. The 
following translation of a papyrus found 
at Thebes gives us a form of the invo- 
cation of Typhon r "I invoke thee who 
livest in empty space : wind . or ter- 
rible invisible, all powerful, god of 
gods: maker of destruction: and maker 
of desolation : thou who hatest a flour- 
ishing family, since thou hast been ex 
pelled from Egypt and out of foreign 
countries. Thou hast been named the 
all destroyer, and the inviucible. I 
invoke thee Typhon Set: I perform 
thy magical rites. Because I invoke 
thee by thy genuine name, by virtue 
of which thou canst not refuse to hear 
. . . . come to me entire, and walk, 
and throw down that man — or that 
woman — by cold and heat. He has 
wronged me," etc. Herodotus (ii, 32, 33) 
relates of the travels of the Nasamoni- 
ans in Africa, that they came to a great 
river which flowed by a town of dwarfs, 
and which abounded in crocodiles. In 
this connexion he strangely informs us 
that they were a nation of sorcerers. 
3. Others, (Hirtzel, Fiirst, Schlottmann, 
Ewald, etc.,) who cite Yon Bohlen, 
think that the expression refers to the 
dragon in the heavens, a constellation 
which, according to eastern mythol- 
ogy, followed the suu and moon like a 
relentless enenry, sometimes surround- 
ing them with his mighty folds, and so 
bringing on darkness. Throughout the 
East the ancients believed that their 
magicians could work upon this mon- 
ster. A similar belief with respect to 
a monster called Rahu prevails among 
the Hindus to the present time. In 
times of eclipse the natives (as do the 
Chinese) raise a great din to compel the 
dragon to release his prey. Job's wish, 
according to this view, was, that these 
day-cursers might rouse up this dragon, 
and thus effect a complete obscuration 
of the night. 4. The fathers looked 
upon the passage from a spiritual stand- 
point, and regarded it as referring to 
a spiritual encounter with Leviathan. 



40 



JOB. 



ing. 9 Let the stars of the twilight 
thereof be dark ; let it look for light, 
but have none ; neither let it see 6 the 
dawning of the day : 10 Because it 
shut not up the doors of my mother'' s 
womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. 
1 1 d Why died 1 not from the womb ? 



6 Heb. the eyelids of the morning, chap. 41. 18. 



They saw in it a prophecy of the incar- 
nated One who should overcome the 
great serpent, which is hostile not only 
to the light, but to the G-od of light. (See 
extended citations in Wordsworth, who 
favours this view.) Such an interpreta- 
tion, however, is unnatural and forced. 
9. The dawning of the day — Lit- 
erally, Let it not see the eyelashes of the 
dawn ; that is, the first rays of the sun. 
Sophocles speaks of the eyelid of the 
golden day. (Antig., 103.) The Arab 
poets call the sun the eye of the day. 
In his early struggling rays their im- 
agination traces eyebrows for the ap- 
proaching sun. "Like the sun, before 
whose face the mantle of clouds is 
spread, while through the rifts his eye- 
brows appear." But this and other 
citations, made by Schultens from the 
Arab muse, pale before the striking and 
tender beauty of our text. Milton has 
evidently borrowed from it — 

" Ere the high lawns appeared 
Under the opening eyelids of the dawn 
We drove afield." — Lycidas, 1. 26. 

Second long strophe — Job wishes 

THAT HE WERE DEAD, 11-19. 

a. The four following questions form a 
climax: he follows the course of his life 
from its commencement in embryo (DmO) 

to the birth, and from the joy of his fa- 
ther, tulto took the new-born child upon his 
knees, to the fuller developme?it of the in- 
fant, and he curses this growing life in 
four phases. — Arnheim and Schlott- 
MANN, 11-13. 

11. Why died I not — Since for 
some inexplicable cause it was neces- 
sary that I should live, why did I not 
die before, or immediately when, I was 
born ? Even the gay and frivolous life of 
the Greek, with all its glamour, could 
not hide the current of misery that pul- 
sated through and through the nation's 
heart. And yet little would we expect 



why did 1 not give up the ghost when 
I came out of the belly? 12 e Why 
did the knees prevent me ? or why the 
breasts that 1 should suck? 13 For 
now should I have lain still and been 
quiet, I should have slept : then had I 
been at rest, 



(ZChap. 10. 18. eGen. 30. 3; Isa. 



from the Greek such a maxim of de- 
spair as this of Theognis, (425 :) " The 
best of all things is, not to be born and 
see the rays of the bright sun, but when 
born, to die as soon as possible, and he 
buried under a load of earth." 

12. Knees — Metaphorically for lap. 
Prevent — An old English word, mean- 
ing anticipate. It was the custom, at a 
very ancient period, for the father, 
while music in the meanwhile was 
heard to sound, to clasp the new-born 
child to his bosom, and by this cere- 
mony he was understood to declare it 
to be his own. Gen. 1, 23. (Jahn, 
Archaeology, 161.) Among many an- 
cient nations the father possessed the 
power of determining whether the child 
should be permitted to live. It was 
thus both in Greece and Rome. In 
Athens, Solon is said to have allowed 
the parent of the child to put it to 
death. The Emperor Augustus fol- 
lowed the sad custom by ordering a 
great-grandchild to be exposed to 
death. But child-murder and abortion 
among the Jews were punishable with 
death, according to the law. (Dollin- 
GER, Gentile, etc., ii, 246, 27 1, 342.) It is 
more natural to interpret the passage 
as referring to the deep affection which 
nature has implanted within the bosom 
of the mother, which anticipates the 
helplessness and varied wants of the iu- 
fant. The more pure the religion of the 
parent, the deeper, the more unselfish 
and abiding, the parental affection. 

13. Then had I been at rest— The 
gradation is to be remarked — lain still, 
been quiet, have slept, been at rest. 
The idea of "rest" in our text, is not 
one of unconsciousness. The expres- 
sions are such as we ourselves continue 
to use in anticipation of the quiet of 
the grave. The inscriptions in the Cat- 
acombs are in harmony with this pas- 
s-ige, (verses 13-20,) which we may not 



CHAPTER III. 



41 



14 With kings and counsellors of the 
earth, which f built desolate places for 



/Chap. 



improperly regard as a strain from na- 
ture's oratorio of the grave. " In those 
inscriptions the Christian is always at 
peace — in pace. This phrase occurs ei- 
ther at the beginning or at the end of 
most of them as a necessary formula." 
— Northcote, Catac, p. 162. The idea 
of immortality was most vivid in the 
heart of the infant Church, "yet the 
Christian, not content with calling his 
burial ground a sleeping place, (ceme- 
tery,) pushes the notion of slumber to 
its fullest extent." — Maitland, Catac, 
page 42. 

b. This rest he would have shared with 
all grades of conscious existence ; not only 
the most prosperous in life, but the mere 
excrescences of being, 14—16. 

14. Desolate places — nnin. Mi- 

tt; 

chselis translates temples; Umbreit, ru- 
ins ; Renan, mausolea ; the Vulgate and 
Targum, solitudes. The word cannot 
mean ruins, in the proper sense of the 
term. Hitzig well remarks, that "such 
work is not characteristic of kings, and 
if it were, it is here unsuitable to the 
sense." Nor is the idea of ruins ap- 
plied proleptically to palaces and other 
structures they may have built, as some 
(Umbreit, Hahn, Noyes, etc.) have 
thought. To turn aside and speak of 
buildings that in time should become 
ruins, w r ould not only be an unreason- 
able interruption of the thought, but 
introduce "a sense which does not 
magnify, but minishes, the reputation 
of the great dead." If the idea of deso- 
lation be accepted, which is certainly 
one of the root meanings of the word, 
it must be applied to the purpose of 
the structure. This can be none other 
than the voidness, the desolation, of 
death. The context unquestionably 
points to some kind of burial structure. 
The sentence itself indicates the same: 

they built for themselves (ijofs) the house 

of desolation. Compare the "sepulchre 
for thyself;" three times repeated, Isa. 
xxii, 16. With this (if we may accept 
the views of Ewald, Dillmann, and 



themselves; 15 Or with princes that 
had gold, who filled their houses withsil- 

15. 28. 

Delitzsch) agrees the derivation of the 
word horaboth. They regard it as kin- 
dred with hiram or ahram, the Arabic, 
and pi-chram, the Coptic, for py-ramids. 
For the possible transition of the word, 
consult Dillmann in lac. Job's fre- 
quent allusions to Egyptian matters 
justify us in presuming that he must 
have known of the pyramids as burial 
places of the mighty dead. They built 
for themselves — They strove to trans- 
fer the aristocracy of life into the sad 
regions of the grave. They separated 
themselves from " the common herd " 
of the unknown dead, and by various 
devices strove to hide their sarcopha- 
gus in safety forever from human eye. 
It is a ghastly pre-eminence to which 
power and wealth lifted them, that of 
"lying in state" alone in the grave. 
These pyramidal and protective struc- 
tures for the dead do not necessarily, 
as Sharpe maintains, speak of a resur- 
rection, but of the foreboding, if not 
despair, under which their builders 
bent to the behest of death. For their 
hope was to a great extent, and per- 
haps entirely, wrapped up in the con- 
tinued identity of the mummified body. 
Its destruction entailed a vague but 
sure calamity upon the soul. In the 
eighty-ninth chapter of the Egyptian 
"Book of the Dead," the body prays 
that " the guardians of heaven may not 
be ordered to destroy it ... so as to send 
away my soul from my corpse," in allu- 
sion i o the expected re-union of the two. 
" Fully acknowledging the immortality 
of the soul," says Osburn, (Mon. Egypt, 
i, 446,) "the investors of the idola- 
try of Egypt debased this doctrine by 
teaching that it was closely linked 
with, and contingent upon, the inde- 
structibility of the lifeless body." In 
contrast to the proud isolation of these, 
the great ones of earth, how simple 
the God's-acre where rest the humble 
and pious dead. 

15. Their houses — Meaning, their 
tombs; thus Roseumiiller, llirtzel, and 
Hitzig. In like manner Isaiah (xiv, 18) 
and Diodorus Siculus, (i, 51,) accord- 



42 



JOB. 



ver : 1 6 Or g as a hidden untimely birth 
I had not been ; as infants which never 



a Psa. 58. 



ing to whom the Egyptians called their 
graves houses, olkol. The ancients 
buried treasures with their dead. Jo- 
sephus tells us that immense wealth was 
interred with David, and that thirteen 
hundred years afterward Hyrcanus 
opened one room of the sepulchre, and 
took out three thousand talents, part 
of which he gave to Antiochus, that 
the siege of the city might be raised. 
(Antiq., vii, chap, xv.) Canon Cook 
cites a papyrus from the times of Ba- 
rneses III., (contemporary with the ear- 
ly Judges,) which contains an account 
of the trial and execution of robbers 
who broke into several Egyptian tombs, 
and despoiled the mummies of large 
quantities of gold. Job specifies three 
classes of the fortunate dead : 1. Those 
whose display is greatest in death, 
verse 14. 2. Those most successful in 
life, verse 15. 3. Those who altogether 
failed of conscious existence in this life, 
verse 16. They are all one in the 
grave, and could he only have died as 
soon as he was born he would have 
been equally at rest. The splendid 
si.ccesses of life take upon them a dif- 
ferent hue when contemplated from the 
brink of the grave. That the repose 
of death should be more to be desired 
than gold, and silver, and brilliancy of 
mortal estate, bears witness, not to emo- 
tions of envious regret on the part of 
Job over his own lost grandeur, as 
some have intimated — nor is it "irony," 
as Umbreit would have it, " which oft- 
en blazes forth from the black cloud 
of melancholy" — it is rather the view 
of an enlightened soul, that sees in the 
rest of the grave the shadow of the 
eternal " rest that remaineth for the 
people of God." Even the heathen 
philosopher Aristotle, (cited by Baw- 
linson, Christianity, etc., page 238,) 
looked upon man's final happiness as 
an "energy of rest;" one single, pure, 
unchanging, and perpetual energy of 
thought; the silent contemplation of 
God and Godlike things. 

16. Untimely birth — A. like figure 
appears in Psa. Iviii, 8. A similarity 



saw light. 17 There the wicked cease 
from troubling ; and there the * weary 

7 Heb. icearied in strength. 



has been traced in other passages be- 
tween Job and the Psalms. That such 
resemblance should exist does not nec- 
essarily determine which of the works 
was written before the other. The 
most it attests is, that the prior work 
(Job) was received as a sacred took 
by later writers. 

c. Then and there, for the first time, 
the inequalities in lifes allotments are 
brought to an end, 17-19. 

17. There — In the grave. The 
wicked — The man who rages. Ac- 
cording to Kimchi, such is the idea of 

the root of the word $?Eh, to rage, to 

storm. He is inw r ardly torn by pas- 
sions and appetites. The ocean is a 
befitting emblem of his ever-restless 
soul. (Isa. lvii, 20.) His inward trouble 
leads him to trouble others. His pres- 
ent life — an unceasing source of misery 
to himself and of pain to friends — casts 
a dark shadow upon his own eternal 
condition and its relationship to others. 
To such a heart there is but one Being 
who can give rest. (Matt, xi, 28.) The 
weary be at rest — Dr. Chalmers says 
of this verse, that "it is one of the 
Scripture's prime memorabilia. n The 
ancient Egyptian called the abode of 
the dead "the covering of the weary." 
— Brugsch. Compare Brant's " Than- 
atopsis." Those wasted by toil, and 
those stricken of sorrow, alike long for 
the grave as a place of rest. There is 
danger, however, lest the morbid spirit 
exaggerate the real evils of life, and, 
sighing for the grave, be guilty of bring- 
ing reproach upon the ways of God, 
his goodness, and his love. We may 
learn a lesson from the wounded sol- 
dier, who, absorbed in the battle, heeds 
little, and often knows not, the wounds 
he may have received, but fights on 
till the battle is over, and then, only 
then, asks for rest. Life's soldier, 
(chap, vii, 1,) his soul each day tilled 
with duty and laborious love, either 
heeds not or counts as small the pres- 
ent evil, and looks for repose only when 
God's will shall have completed his ex- 



CHAPTER III. 



43 



be at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest 
together; h they hear not the voice of 
the oppressor. 19 The small and great 
are there ; and the servant is free from 
his master. 



h Chap. 



-iJer. 20. 18.- 



:1 Sain. 1. 10. 



istence. Those " wearied in strength " 
(see margin) may be referred to an in- 
cident in the life of Arnauld, the in- 
trepid antagonist of the Vatican, and 
of "the grand monarque." His friend 
Nicole, a companion in arms, expressed 
a wish to retire from the held, and to 
enjoy repose. "Repose!" replied Ar- 
nauld, "will you not have the whole 
of eternity to repose in?" — Encyclop. 
Britannica, 8th ed., i, 81. 

18. Rest — ^JK£J, an intensive form 

of the verb, expressive of deep and 

abiding rest. The oppressor — jj^i, 

taskmaster. The same word appears 
in Exod. v, 6. 

19. The first clause reads, literally, 
"The small and great, there (is) he," 
in the sense that they are the same, or 
on the same level. So in Psa. cii, 27. 
"Thou art he," that is, the same. (Isa, 
xli, 4.) 

Third long strophe — The Impene- 
trable Mysteriousxess op a Life 
of Misery, 20-26. 

a. Why is life given to the wretched, 
vmen death is so much to be preferred f 
20-22. 

20. Wherefore is light given — 
Literally, Wherefore doth he give light? 
which is far more expressive. The poet 
omits the name of deity, either because 
of secret misgiving as to the propriety 
of asking such a question, or because, 
in the bitterness of his heart, he grudges 
to name God. In the same manner, 
Adam, sullenly referring to his wife, 
(Gen. iii, 12,) calls her she, not deign- 
ing to mention the once dear name, 
Eve. Hirtzel, however, adduces many 
passages where, in like manner, Job 
omits the name of God. (Chap, viii, 18; 
xii, 13 ; xvi, 7 ; xx, 23 ; xxii, 21 ; xxiv, 
22, 23, etc. ; also Prov. x, 24.) Notwith- 
standing, this significant silence — at 
least an incipient suspense of faith — 
already shadows forth the fierce storm 



20 ' Wherefore is light given to him 
that is in misery, and life unto the k bit- 
ter in soul ; 2 1 W hich 8 ' long for death, 
but it cometli not ; and dig for it more 
than m for hid treasures ; 22 Which re- 



8Heb. wait.- 



Rev.9.6. 



Prov. 2. 4. 



in which passion will more directly ar- 
raign the ways of God. The most that 
Job now does, is to intimate that God 
is at the base of a scheme that thrusts 
life upon those who are too wretched 
to live. The poet (Longfellow) has 
truly sung — 
" This life of ours is a wild Eolian harp of many 

a joyous strain, 
Yet under them all there runs a loud perpet- 
ual wail, as of souls in pain." 

Why has life been given to such ? The 
question cannot be answered apart 
from belief in another life. The only 
key which unlocks the mystery of ex- 
istence is that which faith proffers. 
This life is meant for soul-discipline. 
It is a brief but sharp tutelage for the 
true existence, which commences with 
death. (See an able sermon by Dr. 
Olin on "Life Inexplicable Except as 
a Probation," page 28.) 

21. Which long for death— Of the 
sufferings of the miserable slaves an- 
ciently employed in the Egyptian mines, 
to whom Hitzio; and others think Job 
refers, Diodorus Siculus gives a long 
and most painful description. It con- 
tains a passage strikingly similar to that 
of the text : " so that these miserable 
creatures always expect worse to come 
than that which they then at present 
endure, and therefore long for death, as 
far more desirable than life." — Booth's 
Edit, i, 159. Hid treasures — Such is 
the instability of eastern governments, 
and the rapacity of monarchs, that it 
has ever been common for the wealthy 
to hide their treasures beneath the 
ground. There are many engaged, 
even at the present day, in digging for 
treasures supposed to have been con- 
cealed in the remote past. The fortu- 
nate finder, Dr. Thomson (Land and 
the Book, i, 195) tells us, often swoons 
away. The digger "becomes positive- 
ly frantic, digs all night with desperate 
earnestness, and continues to work till 
utterly exhausted. There are at .this 



44 



JOB. 



joice exceedingly, and are glad, when 
they can find a grave ? 23 Why is light 
given to a man whose way is hid, n and 
whom God hath hedged in ? 24 For 



.Chap. 19. 8; Lam. 3. 7. 9Heb. before 

my meat. 



my sighing cometh 9 before I eat, and 
my roarings are poured out like the wa- 
ters. 25 For 10 the thing which I great- 
ly feared is come upon me, and that 



hour hundreds of persons thus engaged 
all over the country." The figure sets 
before us the ardour and persistence 
of the search for death, and the over- 
whelming joy of discovery, and is one 
of the most powerful within the com- 
pass of literature. The antithesis of 
death to hidden treasures leads Ewald 
to remark that death, like such treas- 
ures, seems to come out of earth's most 
secret womb, even as Pluto is the god 
of both. Dr. Evans bases upon the 
"Vav consecutive," used here, the just 
observation that the digging for death 
is consequent upon waiting for it — the 
passive waiting and longing being suc- 
ceeded by the more active digging and 
searching for it. A terrible picture of 
the progress of human misery. (Com- 
pare the address of Eleazar, in Jose- 
phus, Wars of the Jews, b. vii, chap, 
viii, sec. 7.) 

22. Rejoice exceedingly — Literal- 
ly, unto exultation, so as to leap for joy. 
The same figure occurs in Hosea ix, 1. 
As is so frequently the case in Job, 
this verse furnishes a climax: 1) re- 
joice ; 2) to exultation ; 3) bound for 
joy. Are glad — y&W, according to 

both Gesenius and Furst, embodies the 
figure of a horse (D^D) bi his joyous 
gambols. (Compare xxxix, 21, where 
the same word occurs.) 

b. By making an application to him- 
self of the preceding monody, Job brings 
his generalization to an end, 23-26. 

23. To a man — Job means himself, 
as is seen in the following verse. The 
antecedent is in verse 20. Verses 21 
and 22 are parenthetical. Whose way- 
is hid — That is, so covered or obscure 
that he cannot see his way before him. 
" A man's way is the exit for his ener- 
gies of action or thought to go in; it 
is hidden when action and thought are 
paralyzed, and unable to find a passage 
through surrounding contradictions." — 
Davidson. Umbreit thinks the picture 
is taken from a wanderer who has lost 



10 Hebrew, I feared a fear, and it came 
upon me. 



his way, and, bewildered, falls into the 
most distressing solicitude. God hath 
hedged in — (Comp. xix', 8 ; Lam. iji, 7 ; 
which may be regarded as a comment 
on the passage ; and Hos. ii, 6.) A gra- 
dation in thought; for not only is his 
" way hid," but whichever way he may 
turn there is no egress: Eloah hath 
" hedged him around." But a little be- 
fore he would not mention the name of 
Deity; now that he does, it helps us 
to see down into the depth of his de- 
spair. 

24. Before I eat — Literally, In pres- 
ence of my bread; that is, at the same 
time of my eating ; or, " instead of my 
bread." — Hitzig. In either case the 
meaning is, "Sighing is my bread." 
Juvenal attributes to the successful 
sinner " a perpetual anxiety, nor does 
it cease even at his hour of meal." (Per- 
petua anxietas, nee mensae tempore ces- 
sat.) — Satires, xiii, 211. Roarings — 
Roarings, as of a lion; or since D^O, 

waters, is sometimes used for the great 
deep, Job may possibly have had in 
mind the roaring of the sea. The fig- 
ure is no stronger than ours — " a flood 
of tears." Like the waters — In an 
uninterrupted flow, like water poured 
forth. 

25. I greatly feared— Literally, A 
fear I feared, and it came upon me. The 
elegance of the Hebrew (Til 115) *iri2) 

is lost in the A. V. Compare Psalm 
liii, 5, see margin. A twofold illustra- 
tion of such alliteration appears to the 
English reader in Isa. xxvii, 7, which 
is well expressed in our translation. 
(Compare Isa. xxii, 17, 18; Micahii, 4.) 
These quite equal in beauty the most 
admired alliterations of the classic po- 
ets: for instance, irovoc novtp nbvov 
(pepsL. — Sophocles, Ajax, 866. The 
form of the verb is come, *J?nN£% {Vav 

consecutive,) closely binds the issue with 
the apprehension, and perhaps justifies 
Hirtzel and Dillmaun in their interpre- 



CHAPTER IV. 



45 



which I was afraid of is come unto me. 
26 I was not in safety, neither had I 
rest, neither was I quiet; yet -trouble 
came. 



lHeb. 



tation : " The trouble he thought of, and 
which he deprecated, immediately came 
upon him." Thus Job may possibly re- 
fer to his solicitude over his children in 
connexion with their sudden and over- 
whelming destruction. Some (Dendy, 
Philos. of Myst.) have fancifully con- 
ceived that the apprehension of misfor- 
tune may prove its cause. Thus Mon- 
taigne was all his life fearful of " the 
stone," and in old age it came upon 
him with all its terrors. — Essays, ii, 
chap, xxxvii. On the other hand, Da- 
vidson mistakingly suggests that the 
idea that Job " in the height of his fe- 
licity had been haunted by the pre- 
sentiment of coming calamity, is op- 
posed to the whole convictions of an- 
tiquity, and contradicted by the an- 
guish and despair of the man under his 
suffering, which was to him inexplica- 
ble and unexpected." On the convic- 
tions of antiquity, see Herodotus, i, 32 ; 
iii, 40 ; vii, 10, 46. 

26. I was not in safety — I was not 
at rest, nor was I secure; I rested not, 
yet trouble came. The common inter- 
pretation of this passage is, trouble 
came upon trouble, without any inter- 
mission or respite between them. Hit- 
zig follows the Targum in supposing 
that the four clauses correspond to the 
four messengers of misfortune, who, by 
their quick succession, gave Job no op- 
portunity for resting and recovering 
from the crushing effect of these con- 
tinual strokes. The Septuagint, how- 
ever, renders it, i" v)as not at peace nor 
quiet, nor had I rest; yet wrath came 
upon me ; which justifies the view that 
this verse strikes the keynote of self- 
justification, heard now for the first 
time ; a note to which the rest of the 
book resounds. . He had lived for God, 
yet trouble came. He had not, like 
others, been at rest; in no sense had 
he sunk into spiritual torpor. The low- 
est depth is now disclosed: God had 
afflicted one who had been faithful to 
him. [Job's self -justification as a man, 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THEN Eliphaz the Temanite an- 
swered and said, JJ If we assay 
1 to commune with thee, wilt thou be 



a word. 



after the measure of men, and before 
men, was just; but, as St. Paul says of 
Abraham, "not before God." Hence, 
when in a subsequent chapter God ap- 
pears and speaks, he is condemned by 
both God and himself.] Nothing else 
in this lamentation justifies the appa- 
rent assault of Eliphaz, iv, 6, T. 

The chapter thus concludes with a 
few startling sentences, each one in 
the origiual consisting of two words. 
The first three are quite the same in 
meaning, and partake of the tumult of 
mind through which the servant of 
God is now passing. Such redundancy 
or pleonasm is an embellishment com- 
mon among poets of every age and 
country, and is often used to express 
mental perturbation. Comp. Isa. viii, 22. 

CHAPTER IV. 
The First Course of the Controversy. 

Chaps, iv-xiv. 
First Discourse op Eliphaz, ch.iv, v. 
1. Eliphaz the Temanite — He 

was the most sensible and discerning 
of the three friends, "and so modest, 
that in the first lesson which he aims 
to give Job he does not speak his own 
thoughts altogether, but communicates 
an oracle." — Herder. Heb. Poet, i, lit. 
His address was calm and dignified; 
his thoughts weighty with the expe- 
rience of many years. Admitting his 
premises, his reasoning was just and 
impressive. Throughout all there was 
a strange lack of sympathy. Less was 
to be expected from the disputants as 
they warmed in debate. Certainly the 
first w r ords might have been of solace, 
rather than cold compliment. The cry 
from out the depths, de profundis, was 
enough to have moved a heart of ada- 
mant. The heart of Job craved the 
bread of consolation, only to receive 
the cold stone of argument. The theory 
of Eliphaz is, that suffering is a neces- 
sary proof of previous sin. This propo- 
sition is implied in vers. 7 and 8. This 



46 



JOB. 



grieved? but 2 who can withhold him- 
self from speaking? 3 Behold, thou 
hast instructed many, and thou a hast 
strengthened the weak hands. 4 Thy 
words have upholden him that was fall- 



2 Heb. who can refrain from xcorols t — a Isa. 
35. 3. b Isa. 35. 3. 



lie illustrates — 1.) By the death of the 
wicked, whom he compares to the lion, 
who, though he be the king of beasts, 
is powerless against the shafts of death. 
Yers. 8-11. 2.) By the disclosures of 
a vision, in which he had seen that 
all men are impure in the sight of God, 
which accounts for the ordinary suffer- 
ings of life. Vers. 12-21. 3.) By the 
acknowledged punishment of the wick- 
ed, involving even their children. Chap, 
v, 1-5. 4.) Evil seems inwrought in 
man, which mystery, however, is to be 
referred to Him whose ways are un- 
searchable. Chap, v, 6-16. 5.) Afflic- 
tion is not fortuitous, but a blessing to 
man, in that it is remedial. Chap, v, 
17, 18. 6.) The subject enforces faith 
and trust in God from a twofold con- 
sideration — -first, his providential care 
of the good, verses 19-23 ; second, the 
certain prosperity of the righteous, 
verses 24-27. "The speech is exqui- 
sitely climactic, rising, as Ewald says, 
from the faint whisper and tune of the 
summer wind, to the loud and irresist- 
ible thunder of the wintry storm." — 
Davidson. 

First double strophe — Proposition — 
Misery implies guilt, 2-11. 

First strophe — Reproof of Job for the 
failure of his faith, 2-6. 

2. If we assay — Literally, Should we 
attempt a word with thee, wilt thou take it 
ill f The address of Telemachus to An- 
tinous in the Odyssey opens in a similar 
manner, almost word for word. Who 
can withhold himself, etc. — Better, 
"Yet to restrain words, who is able?" 
A delicate and courteous beginning. 

3. Instructed — Admonished many. 
Strengthened the weak hands — He 
very properly reminds Job of his past 
offices of consolation by way of compli- 
ment ; not, as some suppose, in irony. 

4. Feeble knees — Literally, sinking 
knees. Schultens sees in these verses 
a beautiful image drawn from the pa- 
lestra, and the contests of wrestlers. 



ing, and thou b hast strengthened 3 the 
feeble knees. 5 But now it is come up- 
on thee, and thou faintest ; it toucheth 
thee, and thou art troubled. 6 Is not 
this c thy fear, d thy confidence, thy hope, 



3 Heb. the bowing knees, Heb. 12. 12. 
1. 1. d Prov. 3. 26. 



-cCliap. 



The duty was devolved upon one to 
prepare for, and assist others in, such 
contests. A like office Job has filled 
as a moral instructor and helper. This 
sense, how T ever, is forced. Similar fig- 
ures are used elsewhere to describe 
moral traits. 2 Sam. iv, 1 ; Isa. xxxv, 3 ; 
Ezek. vii, 17. 

5. Troubled — Rather, confounded. 

6. Is not this thy fear — More lit- 
erally, Is not thy fear (of God) thy confi- 
dence? thy hope (is it not) the uprightness 
of thy ways f Eliphaz in all cases uses 
the word fear in the sense of the fear of 
God. " The word fear is the most com- 
prehensive term for that mixed feeling 
called piety, the contradictory rever- 
ence and confidence, awe and familiar- 
ity, which, like the centripetal and cen- 
trifugal forces, keep man in his orbit 
around God." — Davidson. This verse 
was meant in kindness, " but it is two- 
edged, for there is also implied, if thou 
despairest, thou hast no fear of God." — 
Dillmann. The introduction is a mas- 
terpiece, judged by rhetorical rules. It 
has admirably paved the way for the 
fundamental thought of the next two 
verses. It hab been simple, pertinent, 
conciliatory. It has treated, in the 
main, of the kind offices of Job to oth- 
ers. In the meantime, he is reminded 
that he has not been equal to the emer- 
gency, which is thus far the only senti- 
timent to which exception could have 
been taken. Job, the well known con- 
soler of the feeble, ought to have been 
strong to bear his own grievous trials. 

Second strophe — The axiom Eliphaz 
proceeds to lay down (ver. 8) involves 
an insinuation of wrong-doing on the 
part of Job, 7-11. 

The horns of the grand dilemma of 
the debate now begin to take shape, 
and for the first time protrude them- 
selves. H Job's case be a hopeless one, 
he must be a transgressor, for the testi- 
mony of experience every- where is, that 
hopeless sufferers are not guiltless. 



CHAPTER IV. 



47 



and the uprightness of thy ways 1 7 Ke- 
member, I pray thee, e who ever per- 
ished, being innocent \ or where were 
the righteous cut off? 8 Even as I have 



e Psalm 37. 25. -/Psalm 7. 14; Prov. 22. 8; 

Hosea 10. 13; Gal. 6. 7,8. 4 That is, by his 



7. Who ... perished, being inno- 
cent — Eliphaz strangely overlooks the 
fact that the first recorded human death 
was the murder of a good and innocent 
man. The killing of Abel was premedi- 
tated, if we may trust the Septuagint, 
Targums, and other ancient versions. 
The Septuagint thus begins the sad tale, 
"And Cain said unto Abel, his brother, 
Let us go out into the field," etc. 

8. Even as (so far as). . .they that 
plough iniquity — A principle pro- 
foundly true, every-where a matter of 
observation, and often expressed in a 
like figure. The error of Eliphaz is, that 
he perverts it. He makes great suffer- 
ing an evidence and a measure of per- 
sonal sin. He intimates that all suf- 
fering is the harvest of wrong doing, 
which was not true, for instance, iu 
the case of Job. He is right when he 
says that all sin will sooner or later be 
punished ; he is wrong when he reasons 
that the individual can have no suffering 
that does not spring from his own sins. 
Illustrations abound. Thus yEschylus: 

Nothing worse, 
In whatever cause, than impious fellowship ; 
Nothing of good is reaped : for when the field 
Is sown with wrong, the ripen'd fruit is death. 
—Septem, 602. 

Cicero cites a Latin proverb, "As 
you sowyou will reap." — Be Oral, ii, 94. 

The Institutes of Manu teach the 
Hindu that all diseases are the pun- 
ishment of past offences, and they as- 
sign a particular disease to each partic- 
ular crime. Chap. xi. The teaching of 
the sacred books of the Chinese would, 
perhaps, be more readily accepted by 
Eliphaz : " The good or evil which 
Heaven sends to men depends upon 
their virtue." — Shoo-Kiag, IV, ch. iv. 
Striking instances might be adduced in 
illustration of the thought that to the 
very field where iniquity was perpe- 
trated retribution often comes. The 
grandson of Ahab is himself slain by 
treachery in the portion of the field 
of Naboth the Jezreelite. 2 Kings ix, 



seen, f they that plough iniquity, and 
sow wickedness, reap the same. 9 By 
the blast of God they perish, and 4 by 
the breath of his nostrils are they con- 



anger ; as Isa. 30. 33; see Exod. 15.8; chap. 
1. 19; 15. 30 ; Isa. 11. 4; 2 Thess. 2. 8. 



25, 26. Hoffman was the first to re- 
mark, that, according to Acts i, 18, Ju- 
das must have met his end in the very 
field he bought w r ith the price of a Sav- 
iour's blood. All sin is seminal. Seed 
of every kind carries within itself the 
germ, and as some say the form, of the 
future growth. Sin is essentially re- 
tributive. It embodies the elements of 
retribution. Change of place and lapse 
of time do not affect their vitality. " Sin 
(X>eccasse) is the first and greatest pun- 
ishment of those that sin. Nor is 
any wickedness unpunished ; .since in 
wickedness is the punishment of wick- 
edness." — Seneca, Epist. xcvii. 

9. The blast of God— The breath 
of God. The breath of his nostrils 
— An expression used figuratively for 
wrath. " In the Mediterranean lan- 
guages," says Eiirst, "anger is con- 
ceived of as a snorting, glowing, or 
smoking of the nose." Thus P]K (aph) 

is used both for the nostril and wrath. 
The lively faith of the sons of the East 
saw in their fiery winds, destroying 
life and devastating wade-spread fields 
of vegetation, the breath or blast of 
God. Thevenot, an eastern traveller, 
thus speaks of the effects of the Simoon: 
" This year, 1665, in the month of Ju- 
ly, there died in Bassora, of that wind 
called Samiel, four thousand people in 
three weeks' time." — Part ii, p. 57. The 
air we must breathe becomes a medium 
of divine chastisement. The w r ord epi- 
demic — £7uand 6f]uog (upon the people) 
— takes up and transmits the sentiment 
of Eliphaz. The great pestilences 
come down upon the nations ; the very 
winds become the dark wings upon 
which the dispensations of God are 
spread abroad over the world. The 
faith of the Hebrews called such visi- 
tations the visitation of God. The poi- 
soned blast was no unloosed courser; 
no plaything of chance. It was the 
breath of God. With the breath of his 
lips shall he slay the wicked. Isa. xi, 4. 



48 



JOB. 



sumed. 10 The roaring of the lion, and 
the voice of the fierce lion, and g the 
teeth of the young lions, are broken. 
1 1 h The old lion perisheth for lack of 



g Psalm 58. 6. h Psalm 34. 10. 



"As the previous verse describes ret- 
ribution as a natural necessity founded 
in the order of the world, so does this 
verse trace back this same order of the 
world to the divine causality." — Schlott- 
mann. 

10. The lion — In early times the lion 
was common in Syria. That some places 
should have taken their name from the 
lion, as Lebaoth (lionesses) and Beth Le- 
baoth, shows how numerous must have 
been this terrible beast of prey. The 
exploits of Samson and David will be 
borne in mind, which were quite paral- 
leled by that of Lysimachus, who, hunt- 
ing in Syria, single handed kiUed a 
large lion, but not until the beast had 
torn his shoulder to the bone. — Q. Cur- 
tius, viii, chap. i. The lion has been 
honoured in Oriental languages by a 
great variety of names. If we may 
credit Golius, there are more than five 
hundred appropriated to him in the 
Arabic. (Lex. under Asamah.) Eliphaz 
beautifies his address by using no less 
than five of the seven different names 
which rabbinical writers have discov- 
ered in the Old Testament as belonging 
to this animal. He mentions first the 
or yeh, the general name for the lion, 
" so called from his rending and man- 
gling his prey." — Gesenius. The fierce 
lion — The shahhal, the roarer, (Fiirst,) 
is perhaps the maneless lion. The 
young lions — Kephir, and on account 
of youthful vigour most ferocious, and 
exceedingly bloodthirsty. — Gesenius. 
" The young lions are mentioned along 
with the old in order to exemplify the 
destruction of the haughty sinner with 
his entire household." — Schlottmann. 

11. The old lion — Layish, (the 
Homeric Tag,) not indicative of decrepi- 
tude, but maturity of strength ; the root 
of the word signifying " to be strong." 
The stout lion — Labi, the lioness, 
whose fierceness when with her whelps 
very properly furnishes the climax of 
the description. Gallius calls her the 
boldest and fiercest of animals. There 



prey, and the stout lion's whelps are 
scattered abroad. 12 Now a thing 
was 5 secretly brought to me, and mine 
ear received a little thereof. 13 ' In 



5 Heb. by stealth. i Chap. 33. 15. 



are now two distinct species of lions in 
Mesopotamia, the one maneless and the 
other with a long, black, and shaggy 
mane. — Layard, iii, 487. Here, as is 
frequently the case in the Scriptures, 
evil-doers are represented by the lion. 
Psa. x, 9 ; lviii, 6. He is every- where 
regarded as the king of beasts, and a 
symbol of bloodthirstiness, and on this 
account is employed by the apostle to 
represent another king — the prince of 
fallen spirits. But the roar of the lion 
has an end, and even the teeth of young 
lions, proverbially sharp and terrible, 
are broken. The wicked, however they 
may pride themselves upon their leo- 
nine strength, are in like manner 
brought low. 

Second double strophe — A heaven- 
ly REVELATION, 12-21. 

Strophe a — This revelation is given 
in a night vision, 12-16. 

12. A thing — A word, a divine com- 
munication. "The law shall not per- 
ish from the priest . . . nor the word 
from the prophet." Jer. xviii, 18. Se- 
cretly brought — Stole (literally, was 
stolen) upon me. The Pual form of the 
verb indicates that the "word" was 
sent. The whole description signifies 
"that there is nothing forced or strained 
in God's communication to man ; it drop- 
peth as the gentle rain from heaven 
upon the place beneath." Milton has 
a similar beautiful thought: — 

A soft and solemn "breathing sound 

Eose like the scent of rich distilled perfumes, 

And stole upon the air. 

A little — YOW, (a whisper.) See note, 

chap, xxvi, 14, where the word stands 
in contradistinction to thunder. In 
patriarchal times God employed visions 
and dreams to communicate his will to 
men. Abram, (Gen. xv, 1,) Jacob, 
(Gen. xlvi, 2,) and Moses, (Exod. iii, 2,) 
were thus favoured. That this oracle 
should be communicated through a vis- 
ion, points to a very early age for the 
time of its delivery, for then such com- 



CHAPTER IV. 



49 



thoughts from the visions of the 
night, when deep sleep falleth on men, 



Heb. met me. k Hab. 3. 16. 



munioations were of most frequent oc- 
currence. Eliphaz introduces the vision 
to show that no one is pure or just in 
the sight of God, and consequently 
man has no reason to complain of his 
sufferings, since all by nature are at- 
tainted with sinful infirmity. A few 
bold strokes set before us the vision, 
which is as vivid to his soul as if he 
had seen it the night before. It stands 
unique in all literature — "amazingly 
sublime." — Burke. The mind of man 
has never portrayed aught that has at 
all approached its stern and awful 
grandeur. No one can read it alone 
in the still hours of the night, " when 
deep sleep falleth on men," without 
feeling somewhat the horror which 
fell upon Eliphaz when brought face to 
face with the supernatural. "There is 
form and yet no form ; a gentle whisper, 
a murmuring like the voice of the wind, 
but with it also the power of the wind, 
the energy of spirit." — Herder. It is 
no more than just to the genius of man 
to cite its best effort at ghostly descrip- 
tion. This, Dr. Good finds in the poems 
of Ossian, " whose descriptions of ap- 
paritions possess more terror and sub- 
limity than are to be met with any- 
where out of the Old Testament." The 
poet thus describes the spirit of Loda : 
'• The wan, cold moon rose in the east. 
Sleep descended on the youths, their blue 
helmets glitter to the beam ; the fading- 
fire decays. But sleep did not rest on 
the king. He rose in the midst of his 
arms and slowly ascended the hill to 
behold the flame of Sarno's tower. The 
flame was dim and distant; the moon 
hid the red Maine in the east. A blast 
came from the mountain ; on its wings 
was the spirit of Loda. He came to 
his place in his terrors and shook his 
dusky spear. His eyes appear like 
flame in his dark face ; his voice is like 
distant thunder. Fingal advanced his 
spear amid the night, and raised his 
voice on high. 

" ' Son of Night, retire ! call thy 
winds and fly. Why dost thou come : 
to my presence with thy shadowy ] 

Vol. V.— 5 



14 Fear 'came upon me^ and k trembling, 
which made 7 afl my Dones to shake. 

7 Heb. the multitude of my bones. 

arms? Do I fear thy gloomy form, 
spirit of dismal Loda? Weak is thy 
shield of clouds ; feeble is that meteor, 
thy sword. The blast rolls them to- 
gether, and thou thyself art lost. Fly 
from my presence, son of Night! Call 
thy winds and fly 1 ' 

" ' Dost thou force me from my place ?' 
replied the hollow voice. ' The people 
bend before me. I turn the battle in the 
field of the brave. I look on the nations 
and they vanish. My nostrils pour the 
blast of death. I come abroad on the 
winds ; the tempests are before my 
face, but my dwelling is calm above the 
clouds ; the fields of my rest are pleas- 
ant.' " Compare the description of the 
ghost in Hamlet, act 1, scene 5. 

13. Thoughts— WBW- At its root 

lies the idea of "dividing," "branch- 
ing out." It embodies the figure that 
thoughts spring from the soul, like the 
branches of a tree, intersecting and in- 
tertwining one with another. Deep 
sleep— The same word is used to de- 
scribe the supernatural slumber which 
fell upon Adam. Gen. ii, 21. Eliphaz 
means simply to indicate the depth of 
night, when men are most profoundly lost 
in slumber ; not that he himself was 
asleep, as Hengstenberg conjectures. 

14. All my bones — Literally, the 
multitude of 'my bones. Virgil simi- 
larly describes the effects of horror, 
— " gelidus per ima cucurrit ossa tre- 
mor,' 1 ' 1 (^Eneid, ii, 120,) — through the 
inmost bones an icy tremor ran. 

1 5. A spirit — rWlj rouahh, as a verb, 

signifies to breathe or to blow, and as 
a noun, bears the meaning of breath 
or spirit, according as the associated 
thought shall determine. Locke early 
announced the principle, "1 doubt not 
but if we could trace them to their 
source we should find, in all languages, 
the names which stand for things that 
fall not under our senses to have had 
their first rise from sensible ideas." 
The use of a kindred word for spirit 
may have been developed in, or trans- 
mitted to, all these different languages 
O. T. 



50 



JOB. 



15 Then a spirit passed before my face ; 
the hair of my flesh stood up: 16 It stood 
still, but I could not discern the form 



8 Or, Ilieard a still voice. 



through the reflection that breath and 
spirit are alike invisible, that they are 
so intimately associated together that, 
with the extinction of life, they both 
disappear from the knowledge of men. 
Or, as Delitzsch (Bib. Psych., p. 273) 
more profoundly suggests, " that the 
breathing ... is that form of life 
wherewith life begins to become self- 
life . . . and to evidence itself out- 
wardly." Thus, in the Latin, we have 
animus, the mind, which Cicero says 
is so called from anima, air or breath. 
The Greek word nvedfia, pneuma ; the 
Sanscrit, atman; the Aztec, checatl; the 
Mohawk, atonritz; and our own word, 
spirit, (Latin, spiritus,) as well as simi- 
lar words in other languages, primarily 
bore the meaning of breath or wind, 
as well as of spirit. The word rouahh 
belongs to the same class. With sig- 
nificance it appears here, as in 1 Kings 
xxii, 21, (a rare construction,) in agree- 
ment with the masculine form of the 
verb. Its spiritual meaning was evi- 
dently just as fixed in the days of Job, 
(?hap. xxxii, 8.) as that of spirit is iu 
ours. In our text the word must mean 
spirit, as in 1 Kings xxii, 21, and in 
the Targum, since acts of moral con- 
sciousness and spiritual intelligence are 
attributed to it. It speaks, reasons, (uses 
the argumentum a fortiori,) and commu- 
nicates the sublimest thoughts upon the 
relations of man to God. This passage is 
of great interest, as it unquestionably 
shows that unembodied existence was 
taken for granted in the days of Job. 
This is the first time on scripture page 
that spirit, other than God, sundered 
from bodily restrictions, is personified. 
Subsequently evil spirits appear on their 
dark missions, as in 1 Sam. xvi, 15, 23, 
etc. Whether this being was human or 
of some other order of spiritual intelli- 
gences, does not appear from the vis- 
ion. Commentators in general have 
been of the opinion that it was an an- 
gel. We have an important datum., in 
the free and natural assumption of 
Elipliaz, that spirit can live without a 



thereof: an image was before mine eyes, 
8 there was silence, and I heard a voice, 
saying, 17 ' Shall mortal man be more 

I Chapter 9. 2. 



body. This datum will materially help 
us to a proper conception of the knowl- 
edge that Job possessed in those early 
ages, and will shed light upon the contro- 
verted passages in this book, as to the 
condition of the dead. Passed — S^rP, 

glided by. The same word is used in 
chap, ix, 11, of deity. The employ- 
ment of this verb thus in connexion 
with conscious existence, disposes of 
the reasoning Hitzig bases upon the 
verb, for rendering its subject rouahh, 
wind, (hauch.) The hair of my flesh 
— In like manner the ghost of Hamlet 
could tell a tale that would make 
Thy knotted and combined locks to part, 
And each particular hair to stand on end, 
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. 

— Shakspeare. 

Arrectat que horrore comce, et vox 
faucibus hcusit. The hair stood up with 
horror, etc. — JEneid, xii, 868. 

10. An image — n^ftfi (rendered by 

the Septuagint pop^r], form, comp. Phil, 
ii, 6) is used in Numbers xii, 8 of some 
glorious, visible representation of God. 
(Sept. 66^a, also same in Psa. xvii, 15.) 
The word happily blends the indefi- 
niteness and the substantiality of spir- 
itual existence — answering to Milton's 
idea of that which 

Substance might be called that shadow seemed. 
The preceding word form Hitzig ren- 
ders face, visage, that which has feat- 
ures. Silence, and I heard a voice 
— Septuagint, / heard a soft murmur 
(avpav) and a voice. Dillmann scouts 
the idea of rendering TOOT, silence, 

"because we cannot hear silence," and 
in common with Schlottmann and 
other German commentators, adopts 
the Septuagint. Renan and Conant 
hold to the radical meaning of the 
word, which is unquestionably silence. 
Mercerus renders it, / heard silence and 
a voice, "as if his wonderful words were 
compounded of silence and a voice." 
In 1 Kings xix, 12, even prosaical de- 
scription admits of the "voice of si- 



CHAPTER IV. 



51 



just than God? shall a man be more 
pure than his Maker? 18 Behold, he 
m put no trust in his servants ; 9 and his 



m Chap. 15. 15 ? 25. 5 ; 2 Pet. 2. 4. 9 Or, nor in 

It is angels, in whom he put light. 



lence," DEOT Tip- This would be no 

bolder a stroke for poetry than that of 
the author of " The Seasons," who thus 
personifies silence, — 
Come, then, expressive silence, muse his praise. 

We can almost feel the silence that for 
a little while prevailed as the shadowy 
form stood before the trembling Eli- 
phaz. There is nothing in the struc- 
ture of the sentence to conflict with the 
version of the text, (there was) silence, 
etc. Tyndale's rendering is more ex- 
plicit, "There was stylnes, so that I 
heard this voice." 

Second strophe — TJie purport of the 
revelation whose faintest whisper Eliphaz 
heard, 17-21. Verse 17 contains the 
thesis which the subsequent portion of 
the disclosure illustrates. 

17. Man — Geber, the mighty one, 
forms a climax with mortal man, 
(enosh.) sickly man; the latter being a 
collective word for the entire race. 
The root of this word man (enosh) in- 
volves moral disease, as in Jer. xvii, 9, 
where a participial form (anush) is trans- 
lated desperately wicked. More just 
than God — The Septuagint, (havriov,) 
Rosenmuller, and the Germans gener- 
ollj, render p, min, before God. Thus, 
'•Is a mortal just before God? Is a 
man pure before his Maker ? " They 
base their translation on the objec- 
tion of Codurcus, that no one was ever 
so foolish as to suppose that man is 
more just than God. The Hebrew, how- 
ever, will admit also of the rendering 
of the text, which is that of the Chal- 
dee and the Yulgate — more just than 
God. This view Conant judiciously de- 
fends : " Whoever censures the course 
of Providence by complaining of his 
own lot (as Job had done) claims to 
be more just than God, the equity of 
whose government he thus arraigns." 
With this view agrees that of Heng- 
stenberg. Each complaint over too 
hard a fate is a pretension that we 
may be more just than God; that we 



angels he charged with folly : 1 9 n How 
much less in tfiem that dwell in ° houses 
of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, 

n Chap. 15. 15, 16 ; 25. 5, 6 ; Psa. 14. 3 ; 53. 3. 
o2 Cor. 4. 7; 5.1. 



may have received less from God than 
we have given him. Such preten- 
sions Job had made by his murmur- 
ings against the divine dispensations. 
These pretensions are refuted in what 
follows by adducing the sinfulness of 
our race. Compare H. Melville's ser- 
mon, (in loc.,) "The Spectre's Sermon 
a Truism." 

18. His servants — The highest or- 
ders of angels are accounted as ser- 
vants. Put no trust — Trusteth not, in 
the sense of reliance. The same word 
is used (Isa. xxviii, 16) to express trust 
in the tried Corner-stone. " Since the 
angels are created they are not by their 
nature immutable, like God, and conse- 
quently not immovable from goodness 
and virtue." — Chrysostom. Charged 
with folly — rAnfl- As this word is 

used nowhere else in the Bible, it is 
difficult to determine its meaning. 
Schultens derives it from a similar 
word in the Arabic, signifying lapse or 
failure. The Septuagint translates, he 
perceived perverseness (okoTilov tl) in his 
angels. Among the multiplicity of views 
(seeZ>r. Good) the best is that of TJm- 
breit: "He attributeth imperfection to 
his angels." In asking the question 
how an imperfect holiness can be at- 
tributed to the angels, Hengstenberg 
observes that "the idea of holiness in 
the Scripture embraces infinitely more 
than mere sinlessness ; that it includes 
within itself the independent possession 
of the highest perfection. . . . That 
holiness in this sense does not belong 
to the angels, whose holiness is only 
relative, is evident from the possibil- 
ity of their fall. ... If God were like 
the angels he would not be the Holy 
One." 

19. Much less — P|tf, (aph,) much 

more. The strong logical argument is 
to be remarked. The same kind of 
argument (a fortiori) is employed in 
chaps, xv, 16; xxv, 5, 6. Houses of 
clay — A far more expressive figure for 



52 



JOB. 



which are crushed before the moth ? 
20 p They are 10 destroyed from morn- 
ing to evening : they perish forever 

V Psa. 90. 5, 6.— 10 Heb. beaten in pieces. 

them than for us. Niebuhr says of the 
huts among the Arabs : " The walls are 
of mud mixed with dung, and the roof 
is thatched with a sort of grass." — 
Trav. i, 255. Such habitations are ex- 
ceedingly exposed to destruction from 
floods of rain or storms of wind, and are 
a poor protection against the depreda- 
tions of men. Belzoni witnessed the de- 
struction of several villages of earth- 
built cottages by the rising of the Nile. 
" Men, women, children, cattle, corn, 
every thing was washed away in an in- 
stant." The body is a similar house of 
clay. Paul speaks of " our earthly house 
of this tabernacle: " (2 Cor. v, 1 :) a like 
figure to which, Plato employs when he 
calls the body an earthly tent. If the 
angels untainted by sin are imperfect 
and untrustworthy in the sight of GTod, 
much more men, dwellers in "vile bod- 
ies," that is, "bodies of humiliation," 
(Phil, iii, 21,) houses of clay. Natural 
inference — the soul may live apart from 
the body as a man may away from his 
house. Crushed before the moth — 
Easier or sooner than the moth. (Fiirst, 
Hahn.) Or, Upline may be better ren- 
dered, as the moth (is crushed.) The 
moth is a destructive insect which ev- 
ery one is ready to destroy. And such 
a being, alas ! is man. Nature on every 
side antagonizes man, the great destroy- 
er ; ever arraying her forces against 
him. For a little while he maintains 
his hold upon life, and passing, justifies 
the moral of Piudar: "Men are the 
dream of a shadow," — 2/aac bvap av- 
■d-pcoTtot. 

20. From morning to evening — 
So short is their life that they may be 
called ephemeral. They perish for- 
ever — That is, from this present life. 
Without any regarding it — So insig- 
nificant is man, that though thousands 
perish, the face of society remains the 
same. The landscape shines no less 
brightly though many a blade of grass 
may have withered ; and the ocean rolls 
no less majestically after it has dashed 
its long line of surf against the shore. 



without any regarding it. 21 q Doth 
not their excellency which is in them go 
away ? r they die, even without wisdom. 



q Psa. 39. 11 ; 49. 14. 



Chap. 36. 12. 



Of as little account in the estimate of 
man is man himself. It is of infinite 
moment to man how he shall have lived, 
not so much what others shall think of 
him (if they think of him at all) when 
once he is dead. This verse has such 
a human look that we might imagine 
the spirit that speaks to have once 
been of our race, one of life's great 
actors, his name already blotted out 
from human remembrance. It is more 
profitable to reflect that the oft-recur- 
ring event of death has so little power 
to affect the human heart.. Its visita- 
tions, really more ghastly than those of 
a ghost, elicit this strange feature of 
the heart, that the frequent repetition 
of that which is most terrible renders 
us correspondingly indifferent if not in- 
sensible. The shafts of death are for 
the most part powerless to turn the in- 
fatuated children of men from the pur- 
suit of folly. The subject shows in its 
true light the desperate perverseness of 
the heart of man. 

21. Excellency — "in 1 - Among its 

significations is also that of a cord, 
for instance, of a tent. The language 
is now generally regarded as figura- 
tive. The mysterious soul holds up 
the body as a cord does the tent: if 
that be torn away (JJDJ) the body dies, 

just as a tent, with its cord broken, falls 
to the earth. Dillmann happily renders 
the passage. "Is it not so, if their cord 
in them is torn away they die ? " Renan 
observes, " The image is a familiar one 
among the Semitic races for expressing 
death. The body is compared to a 
tent, the soul to the cord which sus- 
tains the tent." Isa. xxxviii, 12. "In 
them is neither superfluous nor awk- 
ward, (against Ols.,) since it is intend- 
ed to say that their duration of life 
falls in all at once, like a tent when that 
which in them corresponds to the cord 
of a tent (that is, the soul) is drawn 
away from it." — Delitzsch. If we keep in 
view that there is nothing so excellent 
as the soul, and that the Scriptures 



CHAPTER V. 



58 



o 



CHAPTEE V. 

ALL now, if there be any that will 



a Deut. 33. 2, 3. 



sometime* connect with its removal the 
idea of force, we may retaic the word 
excellency, and translate, Is not their 
excellency (that is) in them torn away ? 
The spirit makes more definite the ex- 
cellency to which he refers by adding 
in them. Even without wisdom — 
Literally, and not in wisdom. In folly 
they lived, in folly they died. The les- 
sons ever before them — the vanity of 
human life, the weakness and sinful- 
ness of our mortal state, the relations 
of perishable man to an imperisha- 
ble God, the necessity of some kind of 
preparation for another life — -they had 
not heeded. The race of man dies 
without wisdom ! Thus with a sense 
of pain closes this remarkable vision of 
Eliphaz. To him, one of nature's no- 
ble children, was granted a revelation 
which was afterward denied to the 
more enlightened brothers of Dives. 
The vision impressed upon him these 
momentous truths : 1. The existence of 
a God ; 2. That God was the maker of 
man; 3. The impurity of the human 
heart ; 4. The possible existence of un- 
embodied spirit, which must have sug- 
gested the immortality of his own soul. 
The painful question cannot fail to 
arise, whether this sage of the desert 
yielded his soul to this divine call of 
mercy? Did it exert a reforming power 
over his inner nature, guiding its out- 
goings to Him who should afterward 
come ? or did he sink down into the 
vast deep of moralizings that encom- 
pass every thoughtful being? Litera- 
ture everywhere abounds in profound 
reflections upon this weird and ephem- 
eral life of ours. Lamentably do they 
fail to lead the soul to the pursuit of 
Him who is himself wisdom and right- 
eousness. 

CHAPTER V. 
Third double strophe — Application 

OF THE VISION, 1-7. 

First strophe — The folly of murmur- 
ing, 1-5. 

1. If there be any — Literally, Is 
there he f The Septuagint renders the 
verse, "But call, if anyone will hearken 



answer thee ; and to which of the a saints 
wilt thou Uurn? 2 For wrath kill- 



1 Or, look. 



to thee, or if thou shalt see any of the 
holy angels." The saints — D^tJHp, 

(the holy.) As this term is employed 
both of good men and good angels, 
(Deut. xxxiii, 2, 3 ; Psa. xxxiv, 9, etc.,) 
its meaning must be determined by 
the context. The idea of Eliphaz is, 
that Job, in his present mood, need 
expect no sympathy or help from any 
quarter. The vision just cited has es- 
tablished the inferiority of all beings 
in the sight of God, and, as declared in 
the afflictions of Job, the infinite wis- 
dom of his will. After God has spoken 
there is none other — holy man or an- 
gel — who will either deign or dare to 
make reply to his (Job's) complaints. 
To reply, even, might foster the spirit of 
rebellior. Murmuring belongs to man, 
not to the angels. That there can be no 
reference, as the Romanists teach, to any 
intercession of angels, is evident from 
the comparatively low estimate in which 
the vision had held them. See ver. 8, 
and iv, 18. Nor is it a challenge to Job, 
as Grotius and others have held, to pro- 
duce a similar revelation in his own 
favour. ISTor is there any ground for 
the suggestion of Schultens, that "call" 
and "answer" are forensic terms, thus 
versified by Scott: — 

" Be now complainant, the defendant see ; 
Which angel will espouse thy daring plea." 

2. For wrath — ^3 signifies also 

grief. Passionate sorrow, such as Job 
had indulged, slays the foolish. 2 Cor. 
vii, 10. In the word for, Eliphaz re- 
sumes the leading thought of this dis- 
course — men reap what they sow. The 
passions of a man — for instance, "en- 
vy," (jealousy,) — an envy that even 
looks wistfully at non-existence, (chap. 
iii, 3) — are not only the ruin of a man, 
but they are the marks of "a fool," 
71 K — a w r ord which he repeats in the 

next verse. "The violence of sin 
brings no help, but destruction, to it- 
self, which is the nerve of all Eliphaz 
is saying: vers. 6, 7." — Dav. At the 
opening of the debate the implication 



54 



JOB. 



eth the foolish man, and 2 envy slay- 
eth the silly one. 3 a I have seen the 
foolish taking root: but suddenly I 
cursed his habitation. 4 b His children 
are far from safety, and they are crushed 
in the gate, c neither is there any to de- 



20r,indiffnation. a Psa. 37. 35,36 ; Jeremiah 

12. 2, 3. b Psa. 119. 155 ; 127. 5. 

against Job is of folly, manifesting it- 
self through jealousy and passionate 
murmurings against God, rather than 
of crime. The latter is reserved for a 
direct charge, which the now courteous 
Eliphaz himself brings against Job at 
a later stage of the debate ; chap. xxii. 
Nevertheless, these words sink deep in- 
to the heart of Job, as is seen by his 
allusion (vi, 2) to this very word wrath. 

3. Suddenly I cursed — He feels 
himself justified in acting upon what he 
had observed — that adversity trod upon 
the heel of wickedness. So that where- 
ever he beheld the marked prosperity of 
the foolish, he at once pronounced their 
doom. The version of the Septuagint, 
" but suddenly their habitation was de- 
voured," Merx is not justifiable in fol- 
lowing. " The word ' suddenly ' points, 
as with the finger, to the catastrophe 
by which, at one stroke, Job's prosper- 
ity was laid in the dust — to the Chal- 
deans and Sabeans, to the lightning and 
the storm."— Hengstenberg. 

4. His children— In the East the 
fate of the children was involved in that 
of the parent, as in the case of Haman's 
ten sons, who were hanged on the gal- 
lows. Esther ix, 13, 14. The merciful 
legislation of Moses was arrayed against 
such monstrous perversion of justice. 
Deut. xxiv, 16. Are crushed — David- 
son unnecessarily supposes the verb to 
be reflexive, that the children crushed 
each other by "family feuds and ruin- 
ous litigations." " In the gate," (chap, 
xxxi, 21 ; see also xxlx, 1,) plainly points 
to courts of justice before which father- 
less children, having no natural de- 
fender, would fare badly, even to be- 
ing crushed. In the gate of the city 
the great assemblies of people were 
held, (Prov. i. 21,) whether for reading 
the law and proclamations, (Neh. viii, 
1, 3,) or for the administration of jus- 
tice, (Josh, xx, I ; Ruth iv, 1,) or even 
for market purposes. (2 Kings vii, 1.) 



liver them. 5 Whose harvest the hun- 
gry eateth up, and taketh it even out of 
the thorns, and d the robber swalloweth 
up their substance. 6 Although 3 af- 
fliction cometh not forth of the dust, 
neither doth trouble spring out of the 



c Psalm 109. 12. c? Chapter 18. 9. 

iguity. 



! Or, in- 



The sculptures found by Botta (plate 18) 
represent the king sitting at the gate in 
an arm-chair, the seat of judgment. This 
Oriental custom is transmitted in the 
title of the court of the Sultan, The Sub- 
lime Porte — the word "porte" signify- 
ing gate. In the Koran (chap, xxiii, 19) 
we read ; " We have opened against 
them the gate of supreme judgment." 
See note on Matt, xvi, 19. 

5. Even out of the thorns — The 
best interpretation is that of Dr. Thom- 
son, who speaks of Gennesareth as 
"pre-eminently fruitful in thorns. They 
grow up among the grain, or the grain 
among them, and the reaper must pick 
the harvest out of the thorns." The 
idea of Eliphaz is, that "the robbers 
would make thorough work of it, and 
leave nothing behind them, not even 
that which grew among the thorns. 
(See further, " The Land and the Book," 
i, 5 3 1 .) The robber— The thirsty ; that 
is, greedy spoilers. D" 1 ^ is rendered 

"snare," or "noose," by Gesenius, 
Furst, Hirtzel, Conant, etc., thus, " The 
snare gapeth for their substance:" but 
most ancient versions, together with 
Ewald, Wordsworth, Zockler, etc., 
adopt the reading, " The thirsty (pant 
for) swahow up their substance," on 
the assumption that a weak letter x has 
been lost from the original word. The 
exact meaning of the verb f]KEJ>, which 

expresses violent emotion, such as "to 
pant for," "to greedily drain," etc., ac- 
cords better with the rendering, "the 
thirsty." 

Second strophe — Suffering is of di- 
vine appointment, 6, 1. 

This is shown by its being insepara- 
ble from the constitution of nature. 

6. Although — Rather, for. He pro- 
ceeds to give the reason why it is fool- 
ish to murmur over affliction: evil is 
not fortuitous, but due to the wicked- 
ness of man. Affliction — jitf; evil. 



CHAPTER V. 



55 



ground ; 7 Yet man is e born unto 
4 trouble, as 5 the sparks fly upward. 

8 I would seek unto God, and un- 
to God would I commit my cause : 
9 f Which doeth great things 6 and un- 
searchable ; marvellous things 7 without 



6 Gen. 3. 17-19 ; 1 Cor. 10. 13.— 4 Or, idbour. 

5 Heb. the sons of the burn ing coal lift up 

tojly. -/Chap. 9. 10; 37. 5; Psa. 40. 5; 72. 18; 

145. 3; Rom. 11. 33. 6 Heb. and there is no 

search. 



Spring out — Sprout up like weeds. 
Man's trouble is not a growth or off- 
shoot of nature, but a divine appoint- 
ment on account of sin. It belongs to 
a scheme subsequent to that of nature, 
in which man, a sinful race, grows up 
to trouble as naturally as the plant 
sprouts from the earth, or the spark 
springs upward from the burning coal. 
The true well-spring of misery is not in 
nature, but within man himself. 

7. Yet — Not an adversative, as Dill- 
man, Hitzig, and others would read, but 
for ; thus Conant, Evans, etc. This verse 
is also argumentative. The sparks — 
Bene resheph — sons of fire, just as ar- 
rows are called sons of the bow. Urn- 
breit translates: "Even as the bird of 
prey rises high in its flight." Jerome 
beautifully expresses it, "Man is born 
to labour and the bird to flight." The 
version of the text is better. That the 
evils of life are many, and "in close 
succession rise," is implied in the fig~ 
urative word " sparks." 

Fourth double strophe — God's mor- 
al GOVERNMENT, 8-16. 

First strophe — His government is as 
beneficent in the moral as in the natural 
vjorld, 8—11. 

8. I would seek — Literally, But I, 
I would seek. As for me, whatever 
others may do, I w r ould seek unto God. 
He proposes to go, not to saints or an- 
gels, or through the medium of saints 
or angels, but directly to God himself. 
God — The first name of God is El, the 
second Elohim. The first designation 
of God presents him as the mighty one ; 
the second, as " God in the totality of 
his variously manifested nature." He 
turns with strongest aversion from the 
thought of Job's outcries of despair, in 
like manner as afterward (xxii, 18) from 
the spectacle of successful antediluvian 
sinners, and betakes himself to God. 



number: 10 g Who giveth rain upon 
the earth, and sendeth waters upon the 
s fields: 11 h To set up on high those 
that be low ; that those which mourn 
may be exalted to safety. 12 ' He dis- 
appointeth the devices of the crafty, so 



7 Heb. till there be no number. a Chap. 

28. 2(5; Psa. 65. 9; 147. 8; Jer. 5. 24; 10. 13; 

51. 16; Acts 14. 17. 8 Heb. out places. 

h 1 Sam. 2. 7 ; Psa. 113. 7. i Neh. 4. 15 ; Psa. 

33.10; Isa. 8. 10. 



9. Without number — Literally, 
" Till there be no number y Each ave- 
nue of research opens upon the infinite. 
Science has brought to light worlds of 
creative might of which Eliphaz had 
not dreamed. The commonest text- 
books of science furnish abundant il- 
lustrations of the text. 

10. Giveth rain — The Koran often 
calls the rain " the flowing forth of di- 
vine power." The devastations by 
droughts, so frequently experienced 
throughout the East, make the advent 
of ra : n a most signal event, illustra- 
tive both of the power and goodness 
of God. Psalm lxv, 10 ; Jer. xiv, 22 ; 
Acts xiv, 11. 

11. Eliphaz naturally passes to the 
moral world, in mysterious grandeur so 
far transcending that of nature. He 
who, for the sake of the arid and barren 
wastes connects with each tiny rain- 
drop transforming power, can change 
sorrow into joy. The change produced 
by the autumnal rains Dr. Russel, in 
his "History of Aleppo," calls "a sud- 
den resurrection of vegetable nature." 

Second strophe — Human arrogance 
and human wisdom God alike overwhelms 
and brings to shame, 12-16. 

12. Crafty — From Q^y, to spin, twist 

Furst cites three Hebrew words ex- 
pressive of cunning or evil thought, 
(he might have added pathal, frov)ard, 
ver. 13,) whose roots give the same 
idea of spinning. However men may 
w T ork in the dark, spinning their evil 
devices, God "breaks them to "pieces," 
(disappointeth,) "lEft. Enterprise — 

n»K*in, toushiyyah. The root of the 

T • 

word indicates being, substance, that 
which is. See note on chap, vi, 1 3. It 
stands in contrast with Jltf, evil, which 

signifies, also, emptiness, nothingnes-i, 



56 



JOB. 



that their hands 9 cannot perform their I in the night. 15 But m he saveth the 



enterprise. 13 k He taketh the wise 
in their own craftiness : and the coun- 
sel of the froward is carried headlong. 
14 'They 10 meet with darkness in the 
daytime, and grope in the noonday as 



9 Or, cannot perform anything. k Psa 1 . 

9. 15; 1 Cor. 3. 19. 1 Deut. 28. 29; Isa. 59. 10' 

Amos 8. 9. 10 Or, run into. 

which is its root idea. The wicked can 
accomplish nothing substantial. 

13. The wise — Those whose " wis- 
dom is of this world," as in 1 Cor. hi, 
19, a verse in which the apostle quotes 
this very passage from the Hebrew, 
rather than the Septuagint. There 
lurks an insinuation, that Job's boasted 
wisdom may prove to be a like coun- 
terfeit of the real. " He captures the 
wise, not when their wisdom has for- 
saken them, and they make a false 
step, but at the very point where they 
make the highest use of it." — Heng- 
stenberg. "This," says Hitzig, "is the 
only passage in this book which is 
cited in the New Testament." Fro- 
ward — Crooked or cunning. The Koran 
has a similar thought : " God outwits 
the cunning," xiii, 44. Lucretius is 
still more in point : — 
" Circumretit enim vis, atque injuria, quemque 
Atque unde exorta est, ad eum plerumque re- 
vortit." 
"tor force and rapine in their craftiest nets 
Oft their own sons entangle, and the plague 
Tenfold recoils." 



14. They meet with darkness — 

They stumble against darkness. — Ge- 
SENius, TJiesaurus. A judicial visita- 
tion. They were deemed sharp-sighted 
among men. God sends upon them 
thick darkness. 

15. From the sword— T\T1D- Dod- 

v v •• 

erlein, Michaelis, and Conant propose 
to change the pointing of the original, 
in order to make a direct object of the 
verb; thus, 21TO, desolated, and read, 

tt; t 

"So he rescues the victim from their 
mouth, and the needy from the hand 
of the strong." Dr. Adam Clarke ad- 
duces eleven of Kennicott's and De 
Rossi's manuscripts as reading, "from 
the sword of their mouth," with which 
agree the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic. 
The rendering of Zockler, Umbreit, 
aud most moderns, accords with that 



poor from the sword, from their mouth, 
and from the hand of the mighty. 
1(5 n So the poor hath hope, and iniq- 
uity stoppeth her mouth. 

17 "Behold, happy is the man whom 





1 


m Psa. 35. 
Psa. 94. 12 
12 ; Rev. 3 


10. 

Prov. 

. 19 


n 1 Sam. 2 
3.11, 12; 


9 ; Psa. 107. 42. 

Heb. 12. 5; James 



of Delitzsch — -from the sword, (that) of 
their mouth, that is, that proceeds from 
their mouth — who also remarks that the 
text is sound and beautiful. Compare 
Psalm lxiv, 3, " who whet their tongue 
like a sword." The shape of the tongue 
may have led to its comparison to a 
sword ; certainly its power to cut, to 
wound, has ever led the Oriental to as- 
sociate the two together. 

16. So the poor hath hope — As 
the poor are God's special care, Heav- 
en's proteges, it is particularly said of 
them, that they have hope. Eliphaz 
sublimely declares the care of the poor, 
the lowly, and the suffering ones of this 
world to be the ulterior end of the nat- 
ural and moral worlds ; to this end con- 
verge all the arrangements of nature and 
of grace, with all their criss-cross and 
apparently contradictory motions. In 
harmony with our thought is the pleas- 
ing one of Wheweli, (Bridgeivater Tr., 
chap, hi,) who "considers the whole 
mass of the earth, from pole to pole 
and from center to circumference, as 
employed in keeping a snow-drop in the 
position most suited to the promotion 
of its vegetable health." The verse is a 
grand climactical close to tl is sublime 
description of God. Comp. Luke vii, 22, 
with a similar climax — "The poor have 
the gospel preached to them." 

Fifth double strophe — The Blessed 
Results of Submission, 17-27. 

First strophe — The happiness of him 
who 'willingly yields himself to the loving 
chastisements of the Almighty, 17-21. 

17. Behold, happy — Behold, blessed 
is the man. One of the earliest beati- 
tudes ; so important, that our attention 
is specially invited. It appears again 
in the Psalms, (xciv,) the Proverbs, 
(iii,) and Hebrews, (xii.) "The world,'' 
says A. H. Hallam, " was loved in Christ 
alone. The brethren were members of 
his mystical body. All the other bonds 



CHAPTER V 



God correcteth : therefore despise not 
thou the chastening of the Almighty : 
18 p For he maketh sore, and bindeth 
up: he woundeth, and his hands make 
whole. 19 q He shall deliver thee in 
six troubles : yea, in seven r there shall 



V Deut. 32. 39 ; 1 Sam. 2. 6 ; 1st. 30. 26 ; Hosea 

6. 1. ffPsa. 34. 19; 91. 3; Prov. 24. 16; 1 Cor. 

10. 13. r Psa. 91. 10. 



that had fastened down the spirit of the 
universe to our narrow round of earth 
were as nothing in comparison to this 
golden chain of suffering and self-sacri- 
fice, which at once riveted the heart of 
man to one who, like himself, was ac- 
quainted with grief. Pain is the deep- 
est tiling we have in our nature, and 
union [with God] through pain has al- 
ways seemed more real and more holy 
than any other." 

18. Bindeth up — Among the an- 
cients the healing art was for the most 
part confined to external applications. 
They seem generally to have attributed 
the curing of diseases to supernatural 
agency ; hence priests were resorted to 
for healing purposes, nnce they were 
supposed to possess peculiar powers 
of propitiating their deities. On the 
medical resources of the ancients, see 
Pliny, Nat. Hist, Books xxiii-xxix. Al- 
so Lev. xiii, which Kitto calls the most 
ancient medical treatise in the w r orld. 

19. Six troubles — The speaker first 
incidentally suggests six, but as seven 
is the number expressive of complete- 
ness, he adds "in seven troubles;" that 
is, in all troubles, God will protect us 
against evil. He goes on to specify a 
few. say five, troubles, although Coc- 
ceius and Schultens conceive that sev- 
en are enumerated. Davidson sees a 
fine gradation in the ills, and observes 
that they are coupled together in pairs : 
— First pair: Public national calamity — 
famine and sword, (20.) Second pair: 
Personal private wrong from the pow- 
erful or malevolent — calumny, v iolence, 
(21.) Third pair: Personal private 
misfortune — hunger, (want from fail- 
ure,) beasts of the field, (ravages on 
private property,) (22, 23.) " The num- 
ber seven was esteemed a holy num- 
ber also among other peoples, as the 
Persians, Hindus, and the ancient Ger- 
mans." — Winer, Rwb. This wondrous 
word '• seven," according to Cicero, 



no evil touch thee. 20 8 In famine he 
shall redeem thee from death : and in 
war "from the power of the sword. 
21 *Thou shalt be hid ^from the 
scourge of the tongue : neither shall 
thou he afraid of destruction when it 

s Psa. 33. 19; 37. 19. 11 Heb.from the hands. 

1 Psa. 31. 20. 12 Or, when the tongue 

scouraeth. 

contains the mystery of all things, and 
tends, as Hippocrates, the ancient phi- 
losopher, said, through its occult virtues 
to the evolution of all things. The 
identity of the Hebrew word with 
yiV)) " to swear," "take an oath," as if 

men swore by this word seven, shows 
that from very ancient times it has 
been associated with a sacred idea. 

20. The power of the sword — Lit- 
erally, Tfie hands of the sword. The 
Scriptures attribute hands to other de- 
structive agencies : to the tongue, Prov. 
xviii, 21; to the flame, Isa. xlvii, 14; 
to lions, Dan. vi, 27 ; and to the grave, 
Psa. xlix, 15; as if, poetically, their 
destructive power could be accounted 
for only by their being endowed with 
man's most formidable members of de- 
struction. 

21. Scourge of the tongue — The 
Targum refers this to the incantations 
of Balaam, but without reason. The 
word scourge, tDi^, means whip, and is 




WHIP SUSPENDED FROM THE WRI8T OF TFE 
AKCUEK. 



58 



JOB. 



cometh. 22 At destruction and famine 
thou shalt laugh: u neither shalt thou 
be afraid of the beasts of the earth. 
23 Tor thou shalt be in league with 



•wlsa.11.9; 35.9; 65.25; Ezek.34.25. 



Psa.91.12; 



used here figuratively, with prime refer- 
ence, perhaps, to the whip so frequent- 
ly depicted on the -monuments of Egypt. 
The same word, \y[$, used of Satan's 
rapid and destructive course and ren- 
dered "going to and fro," means literal- 
ly "whipping through," ii, 2. Jeremiah 
(xviii, 18) makes similar allusion to the 
tongue as a whip. Comp. Isa. xxviii, 15. 
Hitzig finds the secret of the figure used 
here in the resemblance of the sound 
of the tongue to that of a whip, or in 
their like flexibility — a thought which 
Homer has, "flexible is the tongue of 
mortals." — Iliad, xx, 248. It is worthy 
of remark, (Schlottmann calls it a cer- 
tain irony,) that the very evil — calumny 
— from which Job is assured he should 
be hidden, in case he yields to the di- 
vine chastisement, is that with which 
the friends already threaten him. 

Second strophe — The blessings that 
shall crown the life of such a favourite 
of heaven, 22-26. 

22. Thou shalt laugh— The man of 
God, secure in his tower of faith, looks 
dawn upon the most formidable evils, 
and, in the bold imagery of the East, 
laughs at them. He thus expresses 
his sense of superiority ; an idea that 
Hobbes has embodied in his theory of 
laughter. 

23. For thou shalt be in league 
with the stones of the field — Liter- 
ally, For with the stones of the field (is) 
thy covenant. "Isaiah (xxviii, 15) speaks 
of ' a covenant with death ; ' that is, 
death is far from us, and will not in- 
jure us. Such, also, is the meaning 
here : thy field will be free from stones, 
which would make it barren." — Bosen- 
muller. In like manner Lucan says 
(Phar., ix, 394)— 

Pax illis cum morte data est, 
Peace with death to them is given, 
in the sense of security from death. 
Dr. Shaw thus alludes to this text: 
" The feet being thus unguarded, (that 
is, being bare, or only protected with 
slippers,) were every moment liable 



the stones of the field : and the beasts 
of the field shall be at peace with thee. 
24 And thou shalt know 13 that thy tab- 
ernacle shall be in peace ; and thou shalt 



Hos.2.18. — 13 Or, that peace is thy tabernacle. 



to be hurt and injured ; and from thence 
perhaps the danger, without the divine 
assistance, which ever protects us from 
the smallest misfortunes, of dashing 
them against a stone, (Psalm xci, 12 ;) 
which, perhaps, will illustrate that dif- 
ficult text (Job v, 23) of being in league 
with the stones of the field." Compare 
2 Kings iii, 25. " The stones are person- 
ified : they conclude a treaty with the 
reformed Job, and promise not to injure 
him." — Hengsten. Beasts of the field 
— In Ezek. xiv, 21, "noisome beasts" 
constitute a fourth calamitous judg- 
ment which God threatens against Is- 
rael. What is here promised to the 
pious man is in like figure prophesied 
of the Messianic times; Isa. xi, 6-10. 
The good man is protected against the 
animate and inanimate creation. Each 
of the three following verses is crowned 
with a promise especially pleasing to 
the Oriental mind : first, domestic bliss; 
second, numerous posterity ; third, long 
life. 

24. Thy tabernacle shall be . . . 
peace — Heb., ohe.l; equally a tent in 
which to live and the house of God in 
which to worship. Our homes should 
be God's houses; then shall they be 
peace. And shalt not sin — Or err, 
as in the margin. Among the radical 
meanings of the word Kt3l~l are, to miss. 

T T 

want, miss the mark. The word orig- 
inally used in a physical sense, for 
instance, of the skill of the warrior, 
(Judges xx, 16,) took upon itself a 
moral meaning, as in the case of the 
Greek ufxaprdvu. Comp. Iliad, v, 287, 
and ix, 501.* The sense of this pas- 



* The following hymn, taken from the Rig 
Veda, vii, 85, contains a similar thought : 

1. Let me not yet, O Yaruna, enter into the 
house of clay; have mercy, Almighty, have 
mercy ! 

2. If I go along trembling like a cloud driven 
by the wind; have mercy, Almighty, have 
mercy ! 

3. Through want of strength, thou strong 
and bright God, have I gone to the wrong 
shore; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy! 

—See further, Mullee's Sanscrit Lit., p. 540. 



CHAPTER V. 



59 



visit thy habitation, and shalt not 14 sin. 
25 Thou shalt know also that w thy seed 
shall be 15 great, and thine offspring x as 
the grass of the earth. 26 y Thou shalt 



14 Or, err- 
aPsa. 



-«t'Psa. 112. 2. 15 Or, much. 

2. 1(5. y Prov. 9. 11 ; 10. 27. 



snge, according to most moderns, is, 
that he shall return to his dwelling and 
find nothing wanting. Thus Words- 
worth: "Not one of thy cattle, sheep, 
or lambs will be missing ; ' — a forced 
and feeble interpretation. The more 
natural reading — which at the same 
time is consistent with the legitimate 
sense of the verb — is that of the Vul- 
gate, Luther, and our English versiou, 
that the good man may be kept by the 
grace of God from the commission of 
sin. As "habitation" corresponds with 
'• tabernacle " of the preceding clause, 
so does God's protection from sin an- 
swer to the "peace " Eliphaz promises. 
The antithesis is thus well sustained, 
and the sense harmonious. Hengsten- 
berg accepts of the English version, 
and explains: "In looking over thy 
possessions thou shalt find thou art 
not treated by God as a sinner but as 
a friend, being richly blessed by him " 
— a paraphrase which Evans rightly 
condemns. 

26. Like as a shock of corn Com- 
eth — Literally, Like the going up of a 
heap of sheaves. The threshing-floor 
was on some open and elevated spot, 
that there might be a free circulation 
of the air, and the grain be more easily 
winnowed. As the carts, crowned with 
the ripened grain, were driven up the 
ascent, a sense of triumph must have 
filled the heart of the husbandman. 
While the paths of earthly glory " lead 
but to the grave," the course of the man 
of God, even in death, is an ascension, 
a -; going up." Like sheaves from the 
harvest-field, the good are gathered to- 
gether at last. Thus Sandys : — 

Thou, full of days, like weighty sheaves of corn 
Iu season reaped, shalt to thy grave be borne. 

27. We have searched it — He thus 
commits the two other friends to the 
sentiments he has expressed, and they 
by their silence assent. Job assumes 
this in his reply. For thy good — As 
in the margin, for thyself. These princi- 
ples, proved by experience, Job may 



come to thy grave in a full age, like as a 
shock of corn 18 cometh in in his season. 
27 Lo this, we have 'searched it, so it is: 
hear it, and know thou it 17 for thy good. 



16Heb. ascend eth. z P^a. 111. 2.- 

for thyself, Prov. 9. 12. 



-17 Heb. 



take to himself. The frigid want of 
sympathy accompanies the speech to its 
bitter end. The galled jade may wince 
— Job is in the hands of a righteous 
God, let him suffer. " Eliphaz blames 
Job for his murmuring, and bids him 
receive his affliction with a recognition 
of human sinfulness and the divine pur- 
pose for good. Thus the controversy 
begins. ' , —Belitzsch. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Job's First Reply. 
The response of Job contains a 
touching appeal to man, (chap, vi,) and 
a much more touching one to God, 
(chapter vii;) appeals which Ewald 
calls the " monologue of despair." His 
miserable condition is such that he 
leaves for the present the considera- 
tion of the cold didactic argument of 
Eliphaz. He defends his lamentation, 
(chap, hi,) as the natural outburst of a 
heart broken by sorrow, but admits 
that he had spoken imprudently. In- 
stead of the balm of friendship and the 
life-giving streams of sympathy, he 
finds a captious disposition to take 
advantage of his words of sorrow 
that had been pressed out of a bleed- 
ing heart. In his appeal to God he 
pleads the shortness and vanity of 
life, the inexorableness of death, his 
own insignificance, as reasons for re- 
lease from the burden of the divine 
visitations. What there is of argu- 
ment, as respects the reasoning of 
Eliphaz, in these impassioned remon- 
strances of Job, is, that his sufferings 
are vastly in excess of those that legit- 
imately spring from man's naturally 
sinful estate ; and as he is conscious of 
his innocence of all overt guilt, there 
still is wanting a solution for his ex- 
treme sufferings. Eliphaz has repre- 
sented premature death to be the pun- 
ishment of the wucked; on the con- 
trary, Job declares death to be his only 
hope — a declaration that conduces to 
the entanglement which afterward be- 



60 



JOB. 



CHAPTER VI. 

BUT Job answered and said, 2 Oh 
that my grief were thoroughly 
weighed, and ray calamity Maid in the 
balances together ! 3 For now it would 

1 Hebrew, lifted up. — —a Proverbs 27. 3.— - 
2 That is, I want words to express my grief, 



comes inextricable, so far as the four 
disputants are concerned. This surg- 
ing sea of doubt, foreboding, wailing, 
and despair, which again quite over- 
whelms Job, casts up some unmistak- 
able pearls of great beauty, among 
which is the prolonged description of 
false and treacherous friendship. 

First long strophe — Justification 
by Job of his lamentation, 2-10. 

First strophe — His grief is so great 
that it cannot be weighed, 2-4. 

2. Grief — fc^JD, vexation or wrath. 

See on chap, v, 2. Job would have the 
test made, whether his vexation were 
greater than his calamity justified. 
The balances — Probably the common 
balance of Egypt,, which was also 
used in early times among the He- 
brews. Lepsius gives a representa- 
tion from an Egyptian tomb, in which 
a person appears to be weighing 
rings of gold or silver with weights 




in the form of a bull's head. The 
weighing of words and thoughts in 
scales is a figure, as Canon Cook 
(Speaker's Commentary) shows, de- 
rived from the remotest antiquity. In 
the Egyptian ritual, the day of weigh- 
ing words is a common term for the 
day of judgment, as in chapter i; and 
the vignette to the 125th chapter repre- 



be heavier a than the sand of the sea : 
therefore a my words are swallowed up. 
4 b For the arrows of the Almighty are 
within me, the poison whereof drinketh 
up my spirit : c the terrors of God do set 

Psalm 77. 4. — -o Psalm 38. 2.— — c Psalm 88. 
15. 16. 

sents the weighing of the heart in the 
presence of Osiris. 

3. Sand of the sea — A figure also 
common in the classic writers for what 
cannot be measured or numbered. Com- 
pare Hosea i, 1 0. Swallowed up — 
}yp. Better, Therefore do my vwrds 

rave. A candid admission ! The prop- 
er acknowledgment of one's error is a 
mark of a truly noble mind. Castell 
gives the meaning of the cognate word 
in Arabic as, " to be rash," which GTe- 
senius (Thesaurus, 758) and Furst both 
accept as the basis and meaning of the 
word here. The secret of his wild 
words lies in his inexpressible, un- 
weighable misery. 

4. The arrows of the Almighty — 
The various calamities, such as sick- 
ness, pain, bereavements, and sorrows, 
(Deut. xxxii, 23 ; Psa. xxxviii, 2,) which 
the great Archer had sent. " The em- 
phasis lies on Almighty — the awful 
nature of his Adversary" — this was 
enough to account for all his madness. 
Few are the hearts in which remain 
not such arrows deeply infixed, which 
He alone can extract — 

Who has Himself 
Been hurt by th' archers ; in his side He bears, 
And in his hands and feet, the cruel scars ! 
— Qmoper. 

The poison whereof. The ancients 
sometimes tipped their arrow-heads 
with the most deadly poison. If they 
but touched the blood they inflicted 
certain death. Ulysses is represented 
in Homer as making a voyage to a dis- 
tant city, Ephyra, — 

Seeking some poisonous drug 
"Wherewith to taint his brazen arrows keen. 
—Odyssey, i, 260. 

Man's cruelty to man, in one age, in- 
vents poisoned arrows, in another, ex- 
plosive bullets. Drinketh up my 
spirit — Rather, my spirit drinketh up. 
The original justifies this change, which 
modern commentators generally adopt. 
The effects of the divine arrows upon 



CHAPTER VI. 



61 



themselves in array against me. 5 Doth 
the wild ass bray a when he hath grass ? 
or loweth the ox over his fodder ? 6 Can 
that which is unsavoury be eaten with- 
out salt? or is there any taste in the 
■white of an egg % 7 The things that my 
soul refused to touch are as my sorrow- 



Heb. at crass. 



Heb. my 



him are similar to the poisoned arrows 
of men. Maddened by the virus, it is 
no wonder he raves. Set themselves 
in array — Used in a military sense, as 
in Judges xx, 33 and 1 Sam. iv, 2, where 
the same Hebrew word is used. 

Second strophe — It is natural for all 
beings, brute and human, to complain 
when in trouble, 5-7. 

5. Dr. Young has the same thought: 
"Deep in their pastures will thy low- 
ing herds complain." "Do you sup- 
pose I (a reasonable being) would com- 
plain without cause ? He complains 
not, with whom ail is well." — Hirtzel. 

6. Unsavoury. . .white of an egg 
— Rir hhallamouth. The latter word 
is one of the many in this book which 
occur but once in the Bible. This is 
because of the great antiquity of the 
book of Job. This archaism has giv- 
en rise to conflicting views. Michael- 
is thinks it means the insipid froth of 
camel's milk, from which the Arabs 
derive many proverbs, comparing an- 
ger, vanity, and whatever is superficial 
with this tasteless froth. (Sup. ad Lex., 
page 779.) Others suppose it signifies 
the broth or slime of pur slain, an herb 
proverbial among the Arabs, Greeks, 
and Romans for its insipidity. Thus 
Renan and Merx. The authorized ver- 
sion is preferable, as Dillmann shows ; 
also Umbreit, Ewald, Delitzsch, and 
Hitzig. An objection is made by Bott- 
cher, that the Hebrews before the cap- 
tivity did not keep poultry. The objec- 
tion is inapposite, since geese, together 
with beef, constituted the principal part 
of the animal food throughout ancient 
Egypt. That by tasteless food he means 
his sorrows, and perhaps his loath- 
some disease, is evident from the pre- 
ceding verses. As insipid food calls 
for some kind of condiment or relish, 
so does his calamity justify complaint. 

7. The things that my soul re- 
fused — The verse reads literally, J/y 



ful meat. 8 Oh that I might have my 
request ; and that God would grant me 
4 the thing that I long for! 9 Even 
d that it would please God to destroy 
me ; that he would let loose his hand, 
and cut me off ! 10 Then should I yet 
have comfort ; yea, I would harden my- 

expeetation. d\ Kings 19. 4. 

soul refuses to touch ! They are as tainted 
food to me. Thus most of the recent 
commentators. Hitzig, however, ren- 
ders ?R, crumbs; which, in connexion 

with "my food," to say the least, 
makes very poor sense. Job's soul re- 
coils from, absolutely loathes, the sor- 
rows of which he speaks in the fourth 
verse, and again, under a figure, in the 
sixth. They are to him "like putridity 
in his food." — Fiirst. 

Third strophe — So heavy is his bur- 
den of sorrow, that death would be true 
consolation, 8-10. 

8. Oh that — We have here the opta- 
tive formula, "Who will give " = Oh 
that ! quite frequent in the addresses of 
Job, and occurring ouce besides in this 
book, in the first address of Zophar. 
xi, 5. The pathos of this appeal is ex- 
ceedingly touching, and is heightened 
by his assuming that all must know 
what that wish must be. 

9. Please God to destroy me — 
With God is the determination of life 
and death. The command, " Thou 
shalt not kill," includes self-destruc- 
tion. In all his sufferings Job never 
intimates a thought of taking his own 
life. The old Hebrew mind would have 
spurned the effeminacy that expresses 
itself in the "Morals of Seneca;" — 
that mind was strong to bear the ills of 
life so long as it pleased God. In the 
entire Old Testament there is no trace 
of suicide apart from war, unless the 
case of Ahithophel be an exception. 
And cut me off — Allusion is here 
made to the weaver, who, when the 
web is woven, cuts off the thread from 
the thrum which fastens the web to 
the loom. Compare Isa. xxxviii, 12. 

10. Then should I yet have 
comfort — " A clear assertion of belief 
in a life to come." — Wordsvjorth. The 
difficulty of any other interpretation 
is felt by Zockler, who cannot see in 



62 



JOB. 



self in sorrow : let him not spare ; for 
e I have not concealed the words of f the 
Holy One. 

1 1 What is my strength, that I should 
hope? and what is mine end, that I 



e Acts 20. 20.- 



-/Leviticus 19. 2 ; Isaiah 57. 15 ; 
Hosea 11. 9. 



this connexion how a speedy death 
could, in and of itself, bring any com- 
fort. He is forced, with Delitzsch, 
Schlottmann, etc., to find the source 
of comfort in the statement of the last 
clause, that he had not denied the 
words of the Holy One ! thus making the 
second member of the verse parentheti- 
cal. The structure of the clause, how- 
ever, naturally points to the preceding 
verse for the ground of his comfort. His 
jubilant expression, that in the midst of 
unsparing anguish he "would exult," is 
also retrospective. The last clause of 
the verse is rather a continued reason 
why G-od should give him the solace 
of death, as both Hirtzel and Dillmann 
admit: the latter urging that the cool 
reflection that he had not denied the 
words of the Holy One would be out 
of harmony with the triumphant exul- 
tation of the second member. That 
he had kept the faith, is a climactical 
reason why G-od should discharge him 
from his troubles, and give sweet 
rest in the grave. "A poor consola- 
tion," (that of being cut off.) Peters 
well says, " perfectly romantic and de- 
lusive, could we suppose him to have 
no expectations after death." I would 
harden myself, etc. — / would exult 
in the pain which Re does not spare : 
(Furst:) or the pain that does not spare. 
— (Dillmann.) The subject of the word 
" spare " is not given in the original. 
Harden myself — IpD- The Arabic 

saladha — to leap, to exult — determines 
the meaning of this word, which oc- 
curs only once in the Scriptures. The 
riXkoynqv of the Septuagint corresponds: 
thus, " Let the grave be my city, 
upon the walls of which I have leaped.'' 1 
Concealed — That is, denied in the 
sense of renouncing. 

Second long strophe — The deceit- 
fulness OF HUMAN FRIENDSHIP, 11-20. 

First strophe — His helplessness and 
consequent liopelessness, 11-13. 



should prolong my life? 12 Is my 
strength the strength of stones ? or Is 
my flesh 5 of brass ? 13 Is not my help 
in me ? and is wisdom driven quite from 
me ? 14 6 g To him that is afflicted pity 

5 Heb. brazen ? 6 Heb. To him that melteth. 

g Prov. 17. 17. 



11. Prolong my life — The Vulgate 
is right — patiently endure. The origi- 
nal, "that I should stretch out my 
spirit," is a decided Hebraism. In 
Exod. vi, 9, anguish is expressed by 
shortness of spirit. Compare Jer. xxi, 5. 

12. Is my flesh of brass — That is, 
invulnerable ? Brass is used sometimes 
as the symbol of incorrigible pride and 
wanton immorality, and sometimes as 
an emblem of durability and strength. 
— (Eadie.) The ancients possessed 
some secret for hardening brass (more 
properly copper) so as to make it firm 
like iron. " For man," says Cicero, " is 
not sculptured out of . the rock, nor 
hewn out of the oak-tree: he has body, 
he has miud; he is moved by mind, he 
is actuated by senses." — Acad. Quest., 
iv, 31. 

1 3. Is not my help in me — Rather, 
Is it not so that there is no help in me ? 
Wisdom — Strength, or soundness — 
toushiyyah; same as in chap, v, 12. A 
comprehensive word embracing the en- 
tire internal resources of a man. We 
may call it the very substratum of 
man's being, the substance, (Latin, sub- 
stantia,) that which is beneath, upon 
which all that appears rests. With Job 
all is gone. 

Second strophe — Tfie withholding of 
sympathy has teen like the failure of a 
summer brook, 14-17. 

14. The pity his condition calls for, 
they (his friends) have denied him. 
To him, etc. — Literally, To the despair- 
ing, from his friend, (is) pity. The pity 
of a friend is spontaneous. Its flow to 
such a despairing sufferer as Job is 
like a fountain, natural and unforced. 
Their sympathy has consisted of words 
and ceremony; hence they are not 
true friends. This prepares us for 
the coming portrayal of deceitful 
friendship. Afflicted — DD, literally, 

melted down, dissolved; a graphic de- 
scription of the effect of sorrow on 



CHAPTER VI. 



63 



should be shoved from his friend; but they pass away; 16 Which are black- 
he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. I ish" by reason of the ice, and wherein 



15 h My brethren have dealt deceitfully 
as a brook, and i as the stream of brooks 



Jer. 15. 18. — 7 Heb. 



Job. Pity — Umbreit says of pity, 
hhesedh, (which may be rendered also 
kindness or love,) that it is the friendly 
and indulgent judgment of our fellow- 
men; the true love which is the spirit 
of Christianity; and it is put (Pro v. hi, 3) 
on a par with truth. They together 
form the principal elements of moral 
perfection, and are recommended to 
our care as a double talisman of per- 
fect virtue. But he forsaketh — Con- 
cerning the meaning of the preceding 
clause there is but little doubt'; the 
confessedly great difficulty of the pres- 
ent clause turns for the most part on 
the rendering of the particle but V 

The old reading of the Targum, Vul- 
gate, Luther, "He who withholds mer- 
cy from his neighbour, he forsakes the 
fear of the Almighty," entirely ignores 
the particle, and is now, with the excep- 
tionof Merx, quite given up. Some mod- 
ern expositors, such as Schlottmann, 
Kenan, Dillmann, and Zockler, read, 
" Even if he should have forsaken," 
etc. The more satisfactory exposition is 
that of Delitzsch, Schnurrer, Hengsten- 
berg, Wordsworth, Canon Cook, etc., 
"Otherwise he forsaketh." etc., that is, 
unless he receives pity from his friend 
— a reading that is justified by the occa- 
sional use of the particle, as in G-ese- 
nius, T/iesaurus, p. 397. For want of 
human sympathy a man may fall away 
from I lis G-od. Nothing can more for- 
cibly express the power of Christian 
love. It is conservative — it may keep 
others from evil. A kind word, a sym- 
pathetic tear, a charitable deed, is a 
little thing, but an engine of might 
that any one may wield. Sympathy, 
oneness of feeling, is a magic power to 
lift the sorrowful and despairing up 
from the abyss. It is like the golden 
chain let down from heaven, as the 
ancients fabled. Through sympathy 
the resources of the one, supplement 
the weakness of another. The field 
of responsibility vastly enlarges, when 
we behold it embracing the little deeds 



the snow is hid: 17 What time they 
wax warm, 7 they vanish: 8 when it is 

they are cut off. 8 Heb. in the heat thereof. 



of charitable love we might have done. 
If sorrow could enter heaven, it would 
be because we have done so little for 
Christ and his suffering ones on earth. 
15. As a brook — The Arabians, as 
Schultens observes, compare a faith- 
less friend to a mountain torrent. Thus, 
" I put no trust in the flowing of thy 
torrent." The Greek Artemidorus, 
writing on dreams, interprets those of 
running water to indicate change and 
instability. The apostle is supposed 
by some to make use of the figure of 
our text in his exhortation against 
spiritual defection. (Heb. ii, 1.) Stream 
of brooks — Rather, the bed of torrents 
— wadies — in which Arabia and Pales- 
tine abound. Dillmann urges that "Qy 

should be rendered overflow, instead of 
pass away — which certainly could 
not be said of the channels — and that it 
is in better accord with the description 
which assumes that the channels are 
full. : ' The long, winding valleys, ' ' in the 
graphic words of the recent traveller, 
Palmer, " by which the mountain groups 
are intersected, are called wadies. They 
are not at all like the valleys to which 
we are accustomed in Europe, but pre- 
sent rather the appearance of dry, sandy 
river-beds. They are, in fact, the 
courses along which the torrents from 
the mountains find their way down to 
the sea ; but, as rain seldom falls, and 
as there is no soil or vegetation on 
the mountain sides to collect or absorb 
the gentle showers when they do come, 
the valleys are never filled except on 
the occasion of some fierce storm burst- 
ing over the mountains which they 
drain." — Desert of the Exodus, p. 22. 

17. What time — At the time (that 
is, as soon as) they flow, they vanish 
away. So short-lived are the moun- 
tain torrents. As soon as the snows 
that feed the streams are melted, the 
torrents are consumed away. " The 
simile is remarkably complete. When 
little needed the torrent overflows, 
wheu needed it disappears ; in winter 



64 



JOB. 



hot, they are 9 consumed out of then- 
place. 18 The paths of their way are 
turned aside ; they go to nothing, and 
perish. 1 9 The troops of k Tenia looked, 



9 Heb. extinguished. &Gen.25.1o. ZlKin. 



it does not fertilize, in summer it is 
dried up." 

Third strophe — Job draws a 'picture 
of caravans perishing miserably for the 
want of water, 18-20. 

18. The paths of their way — 
Delitzsch, Barnes. Wordsworth, and 
Zockler, substantially adopt our au- 
thorized version. They understand 
Job still to speak of the streams, that 
"they wind about; " (are turned aside ;) 
" they go up into the waste (tohu) and 
vanish." Others, (Ewald, Dillmann, 
Noyes, Renan, etc.) more satisfactorily, 
read, caravans turn aside their course, 
they go up into the wastes and perish, 
making a slight change in the pointing 
of the Hebrew — thus, JTimN, orhhoth, 

caravans, as in Isaiah xxi, 13, instead of 
nimX) orhhoth, ways. Delitzsch perti- 
nently puts the argument for the ren- 
dering "ways," by asking "if it be like- 
ly that the poet would let the caravans 
perish in verse 1 8, and in verse 19, sq., 
st'dl live ? If so, the feebler figure fol- 
lows the stronger." On the other hand 
it may be replied, 1) That the same ob- 
jection holds against the rendering of 
" ways." The streams have been con- 
sumed, "extinguished," and if they re- 
appear here on their winding way it 
must be at the creative touch of the 
poetic wand. 2) Two different and en- 
tirely inapposite meanings must be giv- 
en to substantially the same word, orh- 
hoth, in two successive verses, the 18th 
and 19th. 3) To say of torrents, even 
though they wind about, that they go 
up (n^y) into the waste, is quite absurd, 

and can here apply only to caravans. 
Zockler's conceit, (in Lange.) that they 
go up in vapours and clouds, does not 
relieve the difficulty, as tohu does not 
justify such rendering. 4) The objection 
of tautology Evans thus happily an- 
swers: that the chief motive of the de- 
scription just given is not to excite pity 
for the fate of such a caravan, but to 



the companies of 'Sheba waited for them. 
20 They were m confounded because 
they had'hoped ; they came thither, and 
were ashamed. 



10. 1 ; Psa. 72. 10 ; Ezek. 27. 22, 23. 



Jer. 14. 3. 



justify Job's resentment at the treachery 
of which the dry wady is the type. 
Hence in the verses following, Job em- 
phasizes the disappointment which the 
caravans of Tenia and Sheba (uamed 
by way of vivid individualization) would 
feel in such a plight. See note on next 
verse. 

19. Troops of Tema — The cara- 
vans of Tema. Job now enlarges, 
according to Oriental usage, upon the 
thought of the preceding verse, and 
specifies the mighty caravans of Tema 
and Sheba. In very remote ages cara- 
van routes lay through Idumsea. Um- 
breit improperly makes these troops a 
part of the caravans referred to in 
ver. 18, who had gone on and perished. 
"These," he says, "await their return 
and blush over their disappointment." 
This is altogether too tame. Tema 
was the ninth of the sons of Ishmael. 
(Gen. xxv, 15.) The tribe that bore 
his name probably resided not far from 
Idumasa. The prophets speak of a 
Tema in connexion with Arabia and 
her kings ; Isaiah xxi, 14, and Jeremiah 
xxv, 23. The Arabs still give the 
name Taima to a region in the north 
of Arabia-Deserta, on the borders of 
Syria. The town Taima lies on the 
route of the Damascus caravan. It is 
interesting to remember that it was a 
company of Ishmaelites that bought 
Joseph of his brethren and carried him 
down into Egypt. For Sheba see 
note on i, 15. Job probably alluded 
to some well-known destruction of a 
caravan that had failed to find a supply 
of water at the appointed place. 

20. They ■were confounded, etc. — 
Rather, They were ashamed because they 
trusted, they came thither and reddened 
with shame. Job now closes a most 
striking description of the failure of 
human friendship. He leads us to the 
mountain torrent, swollen by wintry 
storms, boisterous, impetuous. While 
we gaze, the voice of the torrent ceases 
to be heard : for the summer sun is on 



CHAPTER VI. 



fi5 



21 10 For now n ye are " nothing; ye 
see mj casting down, and ° are afraid. 

22 Did I say^Bring unto me? or, Give 
a reward for me of your substance ? 

23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy's 
hand i or, p Redeem me from the hand 



10 Or, For now ye are like to them; Heb. to 
it. — . n Chap. 13. 4. 



the sky. "With a master stroke Job 
fixes our eye on the toiling, thirsting, 
dying hosts of a caravan who have 
turned aside that they may find water 
and life in the hour of their distress. 
Again a single touch shows us their 
confusion and despair as they sink 
down in the dreary wastes and die. 
Such is friendship, loud in its profes- 
sions and strong in the day of prosper- 
ity. Such was the thirst of Job's soul 
for the pure streams of friendship ; but 
he thirsted in vain. 

Third long strophe — A further con- 
firmation OF THE FALSENESS OF HIS 
FRIENDS, 21-30. 

First strophe — Job proceeds to apply 
the preceding illustration, 21-23. 

21. Ye are nothing — Like the 
streams the perishing host looked for. 
My casting down — Fearful state, 
(Fiirst.) or terror. Job was fearful to 
behold. The disposition of the three 
friends is like that of the priest and Le- 
vite — the} 7 look on and lend no succour. 
The original has a figure of beauty — a 
paronomasia, (}KVni • • • Witt) that 

cannot be translated. 

22. Give a reward — For the pur- 
pose of bribing, say some, since the 
verb will bear such a rendering. The 
questions are evidently meant in de- 
rision. 

23. Or, Deliver me — He had not 
asked for alms to relieve his distress, 
nor for money for purposes of bribery, 
nor for help to pay his ransom from 
an enemy, nor that his friends should 
interpose against the mighty. He had 
asked absolutely nothing at their hands 
either before or since his crushing ca- 
lamity. As he was under no obliga- 
tions he had reason to expect better 
treatment. 

Second strophe — Their words, far 
from being forcible, have in them the 
elements of cruelty, 24-27. 

Vol. V.— 6 



of the mighty ? 24 Teach me, and I 
will hold my tongue: and cause mo 
to understand wherein I have erred. 
25 How forcible are right words ! but 
what doth your arguing reprove ? 26 Do 
ye imagine to reprove words, and the 



11 Heb. not. o Psa. 38. 11.- 

Psa. 49. 7, 8, 15 ; Psa. 107. 



— p Lev. 23. 
! ; Jer. 15. 21. 



24. Teach me — If they really be- 
lieve that he has been guilty of some 
great wrong, as their looks probably 
showed during the seven days of for- 
mal sorrow, it is their duty now to 
show him the wrong. Eliphaz had 
taken advantage of "the wrath" of 
Job to charge him with folly. Having 
disposed, as he thinks, of this charge, 
Job now demands other reasons for 
their cruel treatment. 

25. How forcible — Row sweet, etc. 
Thus Fiirst, Ewald, and Zockler. Many 
others of equal authority, however, 
(for instance, Gesenius, Thes., p. 820,) 
favour the version of the text — How 
forcible are right words — words of " up- 
rightness," or " truth," -|£>\ The par- 
allelism, which ever helps to the mean- 
ing of a verse, will properly appear 
from a literal translation of the second 
member of the verse : " But wdiat doth 
reproof from you reprove." The feeble- 
ness of their reproof (from you) is set 
forth by contrast with the forcibleness 
of right words. "Words which keep 
the straight way of truth go to the 
heart." 

26. Do ye imagine, etc. — Read, 
Do ye think to reprove (mere) words, 
when the words of the despairing are as 
wind? Instead of displaying wisdom 
by forcible words, their folly is conspic- 
uous in taking up for reproof the words 
of despair rather than the actions and 
character of a lifetime. "Certainly a 
dangerous expression for Job to make," 
(says Dillmann,) " when he thus depre- 
ciates words." Such a sentiment, more- 
over, is quite inconsistent with Job's 
high tone of morals, expressed in his 
anxiety for his children. (Note on i, 5.) 
The view of the recent commentator 
Hitzig relieves the difficulty by render- 
ing the latter clause thus : And even 
the hasty speech of the despairing. The 
Hebrew will justify such a rendering 

O. T. 



JOB. 



speeches of one that is desperate, which 
are as wind ? 27 Yea, 12 ye overwhelm 
the fatherless, and ye q di<>- a pit for your 
friend. 28 Now therefore be content, 
look upon me ; for it is 1S evident unto 



12 Heb. ye cause to fall upon. q Psa. 57. 6. 

13 Heb. before your face. r Chap. 17. 10. 



of lyrvp • literally, to (the) wind, as lie 

satisfactorily shows. 

27. Overwhelm — Literally, Cause 
to fall upon, (as in the margin,) here 
used elliptically. Accordingly, most 
moderns render the clause, Ye would 
even cast lots for the fatherless, in allu- 
sion to a custom by which the prey 
was divided by lot. (See 1 Sam. xiv, 42 ; 
Jonah i, 7.) This is the crudest 
charge that Job makes. Carey, how- 
ever, would supply the word net — and 
read, " ye spring a net." The ancient 
Egyptians, as is still seen on the monu- 
ments, ensnared birds with a net. The 
former rendering is better. Dig a 

pit — rn3- Karah, also bears the mean- 

T T 

ing of traffic ; thus, Ye would traffic in 
your friend; (Ewald, Fiirst, etc.;) for 
instance, as the brethren of Joseph 
trafficked in him. (Comp. chap, xli, 6.) 
According to Hitzig, Job sees in his 
fr'ends a firm conviction that he has 
been guilty of some unknown offense. 
In their uncertainty as to its nature 
they leave (he says) its determination 
to chance. Serious objections to this 
view lie on the surface. Hirtzel and 
Dillmann' suggest a painful thought — 
that the traffic alluded to was in the 
children of deceased friends, who were 
sold into captivity to pay the debts of 
their fathers. (2 Kings iv, 1 .) The read- 
ing of the English version is preferred 
by Rosenmiiller and Oesenius. To the 
present day, among wild nations, the 
mode mentioned in the text is followed 
for entrapping wild beasts. The "pit" 
that has been dug is covered with 
brushwood and earth. The spot selected 
is on the w r onted path of the animal. 
Even the elephant falls into such traps. 
Job, we think, does not mean by this 
harsh language to charge his friends 
with having perpetrated these acts ; 
but that their treatment of him con- 
tained all the elements of such cruelty. 



you if I lie. 29 r Eeturn, I pray you, 

let it not be iniquity ; yea, return again, 
my righteousness is 14 in it. 30 Is there 
iniquity in my tongue ? cannot 15 my taste 
discern perverse things? 

14 That is, in this matter. 15 Heb. my pal- 
ate, chap. 12. 11 ; 34. 3. 



Third strophe — He makes an appeal 
for justice, and justice only, 28-30. 

28. Now therefore — And now be 
pleased to look upon me. He deems 
that they will see, notwithstanding his 
disfigurement, integrity in his look and 
bearing. Evident unto you, etc. — / 
will not speak falsely to your face, is the 
reading of most modern critics. Heng- 
stenberg prefers to read, " let it be be- 
fore your face," that is, be determined 
by you, "whether I lie." 

29. Return . . . return — Renan 
supposes that Job's friends, astonished 
by his apostrophes, turn away as if 
about to depart, and Job calls them 
back. Let it not be iniquity — Let 
there be no wrong (between us.) My 
righteousness is in it — That is, in 
the matter about which we treat, (Dill- 
mann, Hirtzel.) My position is impreg- 
nable, for my cause is a righteous one. 

30. Iniquity — Is there wrong in my 
tongue ? Taste — Cannot my palate dis- 
cern that which is perverse ? Of all hu- 
man beings he himself knows best about 
his own heart and life, as one's own 
palate is best fitted to discern its own 
objects of taste. The word palate is 
here used metaphorically for the moral 
judgment. It is this that tries " per- 
verse things," nfan — "not calamities," 

as Zockler would read, but a " wicked- 
ness which completely contaminates 
feeling and utterance." See Psalm 
lii, 2, where the same word is used and 
rendered "mischiefs." 

CHAPTER VII. 
Fourth long strophe — Job bewails 

THE VANITY OF LIFE, 1-11. 

a. Eliphaz had draivn a glowing pic- 
ture of justice and mercy as blended to- 
gether in the divine ordering of human 
life. On the contrary, Job shows life to be 
a mingled scene of vanity and misery, 1 -6. 

" Job's inflamed eye throws up 
against the sky, in gigantic outline, an 



CHAPTER VII. 



67 



CHAPTER VII. 

/'S there not x a an appointed time to 
man upon earth? are not his days 
also like the days of a hireling? 2 As 



1 Or, a tear/are. a Chap. 14. 5, 13,14; Psa. 



omnipotent slave driver, who fills the 
earth with miserable wretches over- 
worked by day and shaken by fever- 
ish weariness and dreams of torture by 
night. " — Davidson. 

1. An appointed time — JOV, (Job 

xiv, 14; Isa. xl, 2,) a warfare. The 
word is properly used of military ser- 
vice, and is rendered by the Septuagint 
TreipaTfjpiov, "a state of trial." Life 
means service — the hard service of a 
soldier. "Life," says Zoroaster, "'is 
the post of man. It is forbidden to 
quit a post without the permission of 
the commander." (Maxims.) " The fact 
that Job, in verse 1, brings his suffer- 
ing into connexion with the misery 
of the whole race, indicates progress 
in relation to chapter hi, where, pre- 
dominantly at least, he limited himself 
to the representation of his individual 
condition. By this advance, the ques- 
tion concerning God's righteousness 
and love receives a much more forcible 
significance. The question is no long- 
er about a solitary exception, which 
may have a secret personal reason for 
its existence. Job now stands forth as 
representative of the whole of suffer- 
ing, oppressed humanity, arraigning 
God because of his injustice." — Heag- 
stenberg. 

2. Earnestly desireth the shadow 
— Rather, longs for, F|K£>, a word that 

in several oriental languages expresses 
strongest desire. See chap, v, 5. Kitto is 
rather disposed to think that the shad- 
ow means protection against the fierce 
rays of the sun to which the servant 
("13J?; slave) is exposed. Dr. A. Clarke 

more properly interprets it of the night, 
and cites Virgil : " The morning had 
removed the humid shadow from the 
world." Servius observes, "It makes 
no difference whether he says shad- 
ow or night, for night is the shadow 
of the earth." The most ancient arti- 
ficial mode of marking the progress of 
the day was by the shadow caused 



a servant 2 earnestly desireth the shad- 
ow, and as a hireling looketh for the 
reward of his work ; 3 So am I made 
to possess b months of vanity, and wea- 



39.4. 2 Ueh.gapeth after. b See chap.29.2. 



by the sun, which, falling from a pillar 
upon some graduated surface, by its 
length served to denote the hour 
of the day. (2 Kings xx, 11.) The 
people of the East to the present day 
measure time by the length of their 
own shadow. " A person wishing to 
leave his toil says, How long my shad- 
ow is coming." — Roberts. His work 

— Wages. The word in the original 
pyS means both work and wages. As 

the two are closely identified in the 
Hebrew, so they seem to be in the 
thought before us. The hireling hopes 
for — " expects " — his wages ; and shall 
man, the hireling of God, be of less 
consequence than the hireling of man? 
Shall he be " made to inherit " months 
of wretchedness and nights of trouble, 
and receive no compensation ? Is there 
not here a reference to another life, 
where Job, too, should receive recom- 
pense ? If not, the sense is incomplete 

— this second clause is superfluous; 
the first would have sufficed to intro- 
duce the comparison of verse 3. 

3. Months of vanity — The misery, 
#,y$, (not "vanity,") that he is made to 

inherit month after month, is the pivot 
of the comparison. As a slave suffers 
and desires rest, so does Job. The suf- 
fering of the former is for a day, followed 
by its inseparable sweet night of re- 
pose ; but Job's misery is for months, 
with the ever-recurring nights, not of 
repose, but of distress. Job frequently 
refers to the night as the season when 
his sufferings culminated. This leads 
to the poetical culmination in " nights " 
rather than in "months." The Arabs 
count their time by nights rather than 
by days. Job's sufferings had evident- 
ly been long protracted before the 
friends came upon the scene. Are 
appointed — They appoint, or number 
out. The agent, as in many other sim- 
ilar cases, Job leaves unmentioned. 
Compare Job iv, 18, 19: "they crush: " 
xviii, 18. "They shall drive him from 



68 



JOB. 



risome nights are appointed to me. 
4 c "When I lie clown, I say, When shall 
I arise, and 3 the night be gone? and I 
am full of tossings to and fro unto the 
dawning of the day. 5 My flesh is 
d clothed with worms and clods of dust ; 
my skin is broken, and become loath- 
some. 6 e My days are swifter than a 



cDeut. 28. 67 ; chap. 17. 12. 3 Heb. the even- 
ing be measured t ft Isa. 14. 11. e Chap. 

9. 25; lti. 22; 17. 11 ; Psa. 90. o; 102. 11 ; 103. 15; 
144. 4 ; Isa. 38. 12 ; 40. 6 ; James 4. 14. 



light to darkness." Also xix, 26 ; xxxiv, 
20. Dr. Tayler Lewis argues, in loc, 
that the real or supposed agent is some 
fearful or repulsive being, whom Job on 
this account dreads to mention. The 
grammarians, on the other hand, lay 
down that such forms of the verb may 
be used indefinitely. See Nordheimer, 
ii, p. 46. 

4. When I lie down — " This is a 
fine touch. The longing for morn does 
not come, as to the Prometheus of iEs- 
chylus, after a night of suffering, but 
anticipates it. Job's one thought, as 
he lies down hopeless of rest or res- 
pite, is, when will the light return, 
bringing with it, at least, more of con- 
sciousness and power to endure the 
agony." — Canon Cook. The night be 
gone — Tift, is rendered by some, is 

long. Thus Dillmann, Hitzig, and Re- 
nan, "When shall I arise? and the 
night is prolonged." Many others 
make middadh the construct state of a 
verbal noun, and read, " and the flight 
of the evening be" — evening being 
equivalent to night of the preceding 
verse. The accents favour this read- 
ing, which is substantially that of the 
Authorized Version. The use of the 
word evening heightens the beauty of 
the thought. If the evening twilight 
be so hard to bear in anticipation, what 
must the whole night be? 

5. Worms — In the decaying sores 
worms were engendered. " In cases 
of elephantiasis the body is covered 
with boils, in some of which mag- 
gots are bred, while others are cov- 
ered over with a crust of dried corrup- 
tion which often breaks out again." 
— Justin. Clod of dust — Crusts of 
earth. Earth-coloured crust, or scabs 
of hardened sores, cover up the whole 



weaver's shuttle, and are spent without 
hope. 7 Oh remember that f my life is 
wind : mine eye 4 shall no more e see 
good. 8 g The eye of him that hath 
seen me shall see me no more : thine 
eyes are upon me, and 6 I am not. 
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanish- 
eth away ; so h he that goeth down to 

./Psa. 78. 39; 89. 47. 4 Heb. shall not re- 
turn. 5 to see, that is, to enjoy. ^Chap. 

20. 9. 6 That is, I can live no longer. 

7* 2 Sam. 12.23. 



body like a garment. (Dillmann.) Is 
broken — My skin heals and breaks open 
again, (Dillmann, Hitzig.) The mean- 
ing of y;n accords, according to Fiirst, 

with our Authorized Version, but Gese- 
nius and others render it as above, 
heals; literally, "closes together." In 
this disease the skin comes togeth- 
er and heals, and then breaks forth 
again and runs with pus. The inci- 
dental remarks of Job here and there 
in his speeches quite satisfactorily 
determine his disease to be the ele- 
phantiasis. 

6. A weaver's shuttle — The art 
of weaving reaches back to the dawn 
of civilization. It was carried to a 
high state of proficiency among the 
Egyptians, as is seen in the specimens 
of mummy clothing which still remain, 
and which are pronounced to be not 
inferior to the finest cambrics of mod- 
ern times. (Wilkinson.) Hezekiah lik- 
ened the cutting off of his life to a 
weaver's cutting off of his thread. 
Thus in Arabsha's life of Taimur we 
read : " Verily the thread of life is 
joined to that which cuts it: and the 
texture of existence is knitted togeth- 
er with death." An acute writer has 
said, " Perhaps no angelic mind, has 
quickness of thought enough to fix on 
a moment as present." 

b. Job turns supplicatingly to God that 
he may remember him, the incumbent 
of so miserable an estate, lest the oppor- 
tunity to help should soon and forever 
evanish, 1-11. 

7. No more see good — Literally, 
not return to see good; that is, in this 
world. " To see " is used in the sense 
of enjoy. 

8. And I am not — Compare Rev. 
xx, 11. When God maketh requisi- 



CHAPTER VII. 



69 



the grave shall come up no mo re. 10 He 
shall return no more to his house, ' nei- 
ther shall his place know him any more. 
1 1 Therefore I will k not refrain my 
mouth ; I will speak in the anguish of 



£Chap. 8. 18; 



9; Psa. 103. 16.- 
1. 9 ; 40. 9. 



-k Psa. 



tion for man, he at once ceases to be. 
God looks upon him and he is not. 
A drop that trembles on the lotus leaf; 
Such is this life, so soon dispelled, so brief. 
—Buddhistic Hymn, by Sankara. 

9. The grave — $iN£J, sheol See Ex- 
cursus III, at close of chapter. 

10. No more to his house — Ac- 
cording to the " Book of the Dead," the 
Egyptians believed that the man who 
had successfully undergone the ordeal 
in Hades could return whenever he 
pleased to the house he had formerly 
occupied. Know him — Among the 
people of the East, inanimate objects 
are often spoken of as if they knew 
their owners. A man who has sold 
his field says, "that will not know me 
any more." — Roberts' Scripture Illus- 
trations. 

11. Therefore I— ijtf qj : also I. 

Compare Psa. lii, 5, " also G-od." I will 
have my turn now. The abrupt ex- 
pression quivers with a sense of wrong 
— a feeling that God's treatment of 
the speaker is founded in unreason. 
Job's utter suspense of faith could not 
be more painfully declared than by this 
voluntary breaking down of all barriers. 
The pent-up emotions of despair are 
now free to roll forth as a flood. 

Fifth long strophe — An arraign- 
ment op God, 12-21. 

The preceding thoughts upon the 
vanity of life, and its irretrievable de- 
struction by death, forever sundering 
man from home and its endearments, 
arouse Job to violent expostulations 
and reproaches against God. As God 
deals so hard with man, and with him- 
self in particular, he declares he will 
no longer restrain his mouth. 

Strophe a. "TJie first conceivable cause 
of Job's troubles — he might be a menace to 
heaven.' 1 ' — Davidson and Hitzig. God 
treats him as if he were a monstrous ad- 
versary ; whereas, he is at best an insig- 



my spirit ; I will ' complain in the bit- 
terness of my soul. 

12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou 
settest a watch over me ? 13 m When I 
say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch 

1 1 Samuel 1. 10 ; chapter 10. 1. m Chapter 

9. 27. 

nificant being, whose days are a breath. 
He asks not for life, but relief, 12-16. 

12. Am I a sea — God sets bounds 
to the sea, and may thus be said to 
watch over it. The sea was fancied 
by the Hebrew poet to be in a state of 
rebellion, and as calling for divine re- 
straint Jer. xxxi, 35, etc. Job is not 
conscious of a similar revolt against the 
Divine Majesty, and hence he remon- 
strates against being treated like some 
wild "monster," — a term that Yirgil 
applies to the ocean. — JZneid, v, 849. 
Some suppose Job refers to the river 
Nile, which Isaiah (xix, 5) calls a sea; 
while Homer calls it uneavog, the ocean. 
The monster, then, would be the croco- 
dile, against which men set guards. 
The monster (" whale ") Job speaks of 
bears a name (pn, Tannin) similar to 

that in the Egyptian ritual tanem, which 
designated a horrible serpent, the ene- 
my of light and life. Bunsen gives the 
t snake as one of the hieroglyphic 

J signs for the letter " T." — Egypt's 
V Place, etc., i, 568. Tiamat ap- 
' pears in the Assyrian documents 
as the name of the dragon mistress of 
Chaos, answering to Thalatth in the 
fragments of Berosus. — Smith's Chal- 
dean Account, etc., pages 14, 99. Not- 
withstanding, it is more natural to 
suppose that Job refers to the sea, 
with its sublime restlessness, ever chaf- 
ing against its shores. Such a figure 
would naturally suggest itself to one 
" full of tossings to and fro." Verse 4. 
Whale — Tannin. Sea monster. Spe- 
cies not defined. See above. Watch 
— A bold conception. The pains and 
sorrows with which God visits man are 
heaven's vjatch over him. 

13. My bed— The bed (^iy) was a 

canopied couch; in Amos iii, 12, vi, 4, 
the synonym of luxury, while the 
couch, 23$£>p, was the ordinary term 

for bed. 



70 



JOB. 



shall ease my complaint ; 1 4 Then thou 
scarest me with dreams, and terriflest 
me through visions: 15 So that my 
soul chooseth strangling, and death rath- 
er 7 than my life. 1 6 n 1 loathe it / I 
would not live alway : ° let me alone ; 



7 Heb. than my bones. — 
oChap. 10. 20; 14.6; 



-n Chap. 10. 
»sa. 39. 13. 



14. Dreams — According to Avicen- 
na. those afflicted with elephantiasis 
suffer from frequent melancholy dreams. 

15. Strangling — Difficulty of swal- 
lowing is one of the symptoms of ele- 
phantiasis, (Bridel,) and suffocation is 
its usual end. (Delitzsch.) It often be- 
comes necessary to open the jugular 
vein to relieve the hoarseness and the 
tendency to suffocation. (Avicenna.) 
Life — Literally, my bones. So emaci- 
ated was he that he calls his body but 
mere bones. Schlottmann and Urn- 
breit render |ft "than/'/rom, and read 

from my bones, and attribute to Job the 
thought of suicide. But there is no 
authority for using "bones "in the sense 
of hands. Umbreit's admission "that 
the sufferer is represented as strang- 
ling himself in agonizing dreams," is 
fatal to his theory. " There is fearful 
irony," says Davidson, "in the com- 
parison of this skeleton, impotent and 
helpless, his very weakness a terror 
to himself and his on-lookers, to the 
great heaven-assaulting ocean, lifting 
itself up in the consciousness of infinite 
power, or to some dragon of the prime, 
in which the whole energy of creation 
in its youth lay compressed." 

16. I loathe it — TlDXft. Some 

• : - t 

(Conant and Renan) would render it 
"waste away," "dissolve," 2 Cor. v, 1 : 
its more ordinary meaning, to "loathe," 
despise, is better here. Thus Delitzsch, 
etc. I would not live alway — Sir 
Thomas Browne felicitated himself that 
"though it be in the power of the 
weakest arm to take away life, it is 
not in the strongest to deprive us of 
death." — Works., ii, 389. Plotinus, the 
Eeo-Platonist, thanked Godtkathis soul 
was not tied to an immortal body. Com- 
pare the hymn of Muhlenberg on this 
text with the pessimism of Schopen- 
hauer.-See Liddox, Elements of Religion, 



for p my days are vanity. 1 7 q What is 
man, that thou shouldest magnify him? 
and that thou shouldest set thine heart 
upon him ? 18 And that thou shouldest 
visit him every morning, and try him 
every moment ? 19 How long wilt thou 



V Psalm 62. 9. q Psalm 8. 4; 144. 3; Hebrews 



p. 132. Let me alone — Cease from me. 
As if he would say, Man's life depends 
upon the presence, or the conscious put- 
ting forth, of power upon the part of 
God. If he withdraw that presence, or 
cease that activity, man perishes. There 
is no other way to account for life ; that 
mysterious power which upholds the 
upright elaborated matter, a human 
body. How closely does the expres- 
sion " cease from me " bring the living 
man into relationship to God. Comp. 
Psalms civ, 29, 30. Vanity— ^H, a 
breath; the name Abel bore. 

b. The other conceivable cause of Job's 
sufferings — sin. (Davidson.) Sorrowing 
man is too small an object for God's dis- 
ciplinary care, or (as Hiizig suggests) his 
hostile vigilance over him. Job questions 
whether sin be the reason (whether this 
solves the mystery) that God should make 
man the object of his painful visitations. 
Evjald well remarks that Job, for the first 
time, admits that sin may possibly be the 
hidden cause of his sorroios, 17-21. 

17. Man . . . magnify him — Hirtzel 
is hardly justified in thinking that this 
verse is spoken in bitter irony. " Why 
shouldest thou break a fly upon a 
wheel ?"— Wordsworth, The Psalmist 
subsequently enlarges upon the thought 
of the text, Psa. viii, 3-5. His sublime 
conception. What is man that God 
should honour him and visit him (ij5Q, 

as here) with blessings, is no more sub- 
lime than this of Job, that God should 
also think of man and unremittingly try 
him, even by making him the mark 
(verse 20) at which, like an archer, he 
shoots his arrows. In the one case 
man is dwarfed in the comparison with 
the wonder-working of God in the field 
of creation — here, in the comparison 
with his wonder-doing within the more 
wonderful scheme of Providence. 

18. Visit him — How noble must 



CHAPTER VII. 



71 



not depart from me, nor let me alone till 
I swallow clown my spittle '? 20 I have 
sinned ; what shall I do unto thee, r O 
thou preserver of men ? why 9 hast thou 
set me as a mark against thee, so that I 



that being be whom G-od deigns to vis- 
it every morning, and who is worthy 
of being unremittingly tried and test- 
ed. It is as if Job would grandly say, 
In the uuceasing trial for eternity, God 
comes down each morning to mark the 
progress of the work ; the patience 
elicited from sorrow ; the faith, which 
is man's strength, developed through 
temptation; and the ripeness of love 
that binds the soul to God. Coc- 
ceius thinks the idea is taken from a 
shepherd who inspects his flocks every 
morning in order to see if they are 
all there. 

19. Swallow down my spittle — 
A proverbial expression for the brief- 
est interval. Just as we would say, 
" Let me draw my breath ;" or, " In the 
twinkling of an eye." Camus explains 
it, " G-ive me only time enough to swal- 
low my spittle." A witty retort, cited 
by Schultcns from the Arabic, (Tele- 
bius.) will help to illustrate : " Suffer 
me," said one, "to swallow down my 
spittle." To this his friend replied, 
"You may, if you please, swallow 
down even Tigris and Euphrates." 

20. I have sinned — "If I have 
sinned, what shall I be able to do," 
etc. — Septuagint. Many regard it as 
hypothetical, thus : Have I sinned ? 
what do I unto thee, (in what way can 

it affect thee,) thou observer (ivi) of 

men? as if he referred to the sin to 
which Eliphaz seems to allude. Com- 
pare chap, xxxv, 6. The English ver- 
sion is a literal rendering of the origi- 
nal. The context, however, demands a 
conditional reading: Be it that I have 
sinned, what reparation or satisfaction 
can I make unto thee ? " If I have 
deserved thy wrath, it is useless for 
thee to pour it forth on me." — Hitzig. 
There is no question in Job's mind as 
to his having been a sinner. The ques- 
tion at issue is one of specific sin. Sin 
belongs to man as man. The cry of 



am a burden to myself? 21 And why 
dost thou not pardon my transgression, 
and take away mine iniquity ? for now 
shall I sleep in the dust ' and thou shalt 
seek me in the morning, but I shall not be. 



:Chap. 16. 12; Psa. 21. 12; Lam. 3. 12. 



the world is a twofold one: "I have 
sinned," and, "What shall I do unto 
thee?" The thought of sin involves 
the thought of God, as darkness that of 
light, and death that of life. " Against 
thee, thee only, have I sinned." Psalm 
li, 4. The Semitic mind was keenly 
alive to the nature of sin. Its varied 
ritual unceasingly pictured in charac- 
ters of blood the enormity of moral 
guilt. " There is no philosophy from 
which the moral element is more en- 
tirely absent than the Hindu. Yet 
the confession of human sin finds ac- 
knowledgment even there. Mullen's 
Relig. Aspects of Hindu Philos., p. 224. 
The older hymns of the Yedas clearly 
recognised sin as an evil to be depre- 
cated. " Deliver me from sin, as from 
a rope ; let us obtain thy path of right- 
eousness. . . . Yaruna, take all fear 
away from me ; be kind to me, just 
king ! Take away my sin . . . for afar 
from thee I am not the master even of 
a twinkling of the eye." — Big Veda, 
ii, 28, 5; see also ii, 29. 1. A mark 
against thee — Job regards himself as 
a mark, y32D, a butt or target for God, 

(7p, for thee, not against thee,) against 

which the arrows of the Almighty were 
directed. Chap, vi, 4. A burden to 
myself — The Septuagint version ren- 
ders, A burden to thee. The Masorites 
place this among the eighteen passages 
which they say were altered by tran- 
scribers. But the text agrees with the 
other Yersions, and with most of the 
MSS. that have come down to us. The 
heaviest burden which sinful man is 
called to bear is himself 

21. But I shall not be— He fain 
conceives that G-od will relent from his 
apparent purpose of ill, and diligently 
seek him, in order to bestow favour 
upon him, but fears that it will be too 
late, as he will soon be asleep in the 
dust, (Psa. xxii, 15, "dust of death,") 
and no more be found among men. 



72 



JOB. 



EXCURSUS No. III.-SHEOL. 

Sheol, ^itf£ ; , is the word employed 

in the Old Testament to represent the 
abode of the dead. This word occurs 
sixty-five times, and is rendered in the 
authorized version thirty-one times by 
grave, as many more by hell, and three 
times by pit ; in the Septuagint sixty- 
one times by hades, twice by death, 
davaroc, while twice (Job xxiv, 19, 
Ezek. xxxii, 21) the Greek translators 
omit it altogether. The more ancient 
lexicographers derived the word from 
?ffl&, to ask or crave; the more recent 
make the word cognate with ~>y$, to 

•make hollow, (Gesenius,) or go down deep, 
(Fiirst,) a meaning which radically be- 
longs to the German Mile, and the same 
word in our own language, hell, (hol- 
low ;) Greek, ko'lAov, Latin, coelum. So 
that the etymological result is reached, 
that the hollow beneath corresponds to 
the concave above. The sense of in- 
satiableness and inexorable demand, 
that some of the more recent Hebrew 
writers (Prov. xxvii, 20, xxx, 15, 16, 
Isa. v, 14, Hab. ii, 5) attach to this 
word, tends to confirm the root idea 
to be that of "asking" or "seeking." 
This craving they must have attrib- 
uted to sheol objectively, as a place de- 
manding to be filled, in keeping with 
the classical ideas, ("the rapacious Or- 
cus" of Catullus, and "the robber," 
apnaiiTTjp, in Callimachus,) and not sub- 
jectively, as Dr. Tayler Lewis, following 
Horsley eloquently urges, to anxious 
inquirers into the mysteries of the un- 
seen world. 

1. The grave was evidently associ- 
ated with all their conceptions of the 
gathering place of their conscious 
dead ; so that sheol may be regarded 
as an ideal enlargement of the sepul- 
chre. The gloom of the grave so in- 
termingled itself with the dim light of 
a primeval revelation as to darken and 
confuse their conceptions of the place, 
and condition of the dead. Thus the 
popular mind regarded sheol as the 
nether region of the universe, corre- 
sponding in depth to the height of the 
heavens, (Deut. xxxii, 22; Job xi, 8; 



Psa. cxxxix, 8 ; Ezek. xxxi, 14 ; Amos 
ix, 2,) having depths of various grada- 
tions, (Psa. Ixxxvi, 13, Prov. ix, 18,) 
fastened with bars (Job xvii, 16) and 
gates, (Isa. xxxviii, 10,) yet open and 
naked to God (Job xxvi, 6). It also 
conceived sheol to be located some- 
where within the bowels of the earth. 
Num. xvi, 30, 33 ; 1 Sam. xxviii, 13 ; 
Job xxvi, 5 ; xxxviii, 16, 17 ; Psa. lxiii, 9; 
Ezek. xxvi, 20 ; xxxii, 18. 

With respect to a conception so 
foreign to our ordinary ideas, Ruloff 
profoundly suggests that the " king- 
dom of death cannot, as a region of im- 
material and therefore of spiritual being, 
be subjected to the laws of locality of 
material beings in the degree in which 
the things of the visible world are so. 
There are spiritual localities of which 
we can have no idea, very probably 
extending themselves throughout the 
whole dimension of visibility and be- 
yond it." Such are some of the local 
features of this under world of the 
dead. On hades, and the New Testa- 
ment idea of the under world, see notes 
on Eph. iv, 9, 10. 

2. Notwithstanding, in the popular 
conception sheol was entirely distinct 
from the grave. The term sheol is used 
under circumstances where it is plain 
that the grave, in its ordinary meauing, 
cannot be intended. For instance, in 
Gen. xxxvii, 35, where the word first 
appears, Jacob says he will go down 

to sheol, rhilW, unto his son, mourn- 
ing. But in a preceding verse (the 33d) 
he had expressed his convictions that 
an evil beast had devoured him. 

Lucifer, the Babylonian monarch, is, 
according to Isa. xiv, 15, brought down 
to sheol, "to the sides of the pit;" 
while the 19th verse represents him as 
denied the honour of a grave, "Op. In 

powerful figure sheol is moved from 
beneath to meet him at his coming, 
and to stir up the dead for him. 
Verse 9. 

The, various etymological forms, in 
marked contradistinction to sheol, in 
which the older word (~)2\>) for sepul- 
chre appears, show that sheol, in its 
primary sense, did not mean the grave, 



CHAPTER VII. 



but from the beginning was used in the 
more general and abstract meaning of 
abode or slate of the dead. See Meth- 
odist Quar. Rev., 1856, 281-287. 

It is also to be remarked, that while 
"Op, the grave, appears perhaps a hun- 
dred times in the Scriptures, it is never 
used in connexion with nephtsh, soul, as 
is sheol. The reason is, that the He- 
brews employed the one for the recep- 
tacle of the body, the other for that 
of the soul. 

3. Sheol was a state or place which 
the righteous expected to enter. Jacob, 
as we have seen, declared that he "will 
go down in mourning to sheol," r6itf&?> 

toward sheol, or on the way to sheol, 
this being the terminus of his sad pil- 
grimage (also xlii, 38). Job felt that if 
he wait, it is for " sheol, his house" 
xvii, 13; see also xiv, 13. David tri- 
umphantly predicts that he (or the 
Greater than he) " shall not be left to, 

or in, sheol," iflNB^, Psa. xvi, 10, also 

Acts ii, 27, which St. Peter cites from 
the Septuagiut, where it is rendered 
hades, whose meaning he could have 
hardly been ignorant of; (compare Psa. 
cxxxix, 8 ;) and Hezekiah assumes that 
had he died, sheol would have been 
his destination. Isa. xxxviii, 17, 18. 
See also Psa. xxx, 3; xlix, 15; lxxxvi, 
13: Isa. xxxviii, 10; Hosea xiii, 14. 
The Hebrew mind, from the most an- 
cient times, held fast the idea of a gath- 
ering place of the conscious dead, as is 
evinced in the oft-recurring expression 
" gathered to his people." Gen. xxv, 
3, 17; xxxv, 29 ; xlix, 33 ; Num. xx, 24. 
Compare verse 28. That this cannot 
mean the burial together of their dead, 
may be shown not only from the buri- 
al of Aaron, but from the application 
of the same phrase to Moses, (Num. 
xxvii, 13,) whom God buried apart 
from all others. Even "Warburton ad- 
mits that " the phrase originally arose 
(whatever people first employed it) 
from the notion of some common re- 
ceptacle of souls." — Divine Legation, vi, 
section iii, p. 4. 

The righteous entered sheol with 
dread. It was an existence shrouded 
in mystery, one of indescribable dark- 



ness, (see note on x, 21, 22,) "without 
any order;" the realm, not only for 
vague and flitting spirits, but for fears 
and dark forebodings. The very name 

its inhabitants bore, D"XQ~1, rephaim, 

(" the weak," " the powerless," from 
rapha, to be weak, see note on xxvi, 
5, like Homer's ol nafidvreg, the wearied, 
for the dead,) was in keeping with the 
popular idea that death, even for the 
good, meant loss, not to say descent in 
being ; a descent from the knowledge, 
the religious privileges, the preroga- 
tives of life. Psa. vi, 5 ; xxx, 3, 9 ; Isa. 
xxxviii, 18. There were evidently 
fluctuations, both of faith and knowl- 
edge, as to the state of the dead, dur- 
ing the long centuries embraced by the 
patriarchal and Mosaical dispensations 
— twilights not only of light but of dark- 
ness — alternating periods of rational 
faith end doubt, if not despair. Such, 
Job embodied in himself. Yet it is 
plain under every dispensation that 
" the righteous had hope in his death." 
He took with him into the darkness 
faith in his God, a child-like faith that 
the man of deliverance should come. 

4. Into a world bearing the same 
name (sheol) the wicked were cast 
for purposes of punishment at the 
close of life. " They went down alive 
into sheol." Num. xvi, 33. "Sheol 
violently takes those who have sinned." 
Job xxiv, 19, (margin:) "The wicked 
shall be turned into sheol." Psalm 
ix, 17 : "Let them be silent," or, "cut 
off," (margin,) in or to sheol. Psa. 
xxxi, 17. See also Deut. xxxii, 22; 
Prov. v, 5 ; ix, 18 ; Isa. lvii, 9. 

Since the abodes of both good and 
bad were called sheol, we may be 
justified in inferring that the Hebrews 
believed themselves to enter, at death, 
either into one common receptacle, and 
to be separated from each other by 
laws of affiliation apparently implied in 
the frequent expression, " slept witli 
his fathers; " or, as is more probable, 
into compartments or separate dwell- 
ings of the one great under world de- 
termined and fixed by God himself. 
See Peter's Critical Diss, on Job, part 
iii, sec. 8. But the condition of the 
two vast classes was not at all similar. 



74 



JOB. 



T 



CHAPTER VIII. 
HEN answered Bildad the Slmhite, 



« Chapter 11. 2, 3; 



There were grades of punishment even 
in sheol. Moses spoke of a fire that 
burned unto the lowest sheol. Deut. 
xxxii, 22. Compare Job xxxi, 12 ; 
Psa. lxxxvi, 13. Moreover, the ancient 
Scriptures gave indications of depths, 
or a world of retribution, that lay be- 
neath or beyond sheol, to which they 
gave the name of abaddon. This was 
total perdition. Our translators have 
accordingly rendered it destruction. 
Job xxvi, 6 ; xxviii, 22; xxxi, 12 ; Psa. 
lxxxviii, 11; Prov. xv, 11; xxvii, 20. 

5. There are intimations in the Scrip- 
tures that the Hebrews regarded sheol 
as a temporary abode for the righteous. 
We have seen how they shuddered to 
enter it. and yet we are told that they 
looked for " a better " (country), even 
" a heavenly," and that they endured, 
" that they might obtain a better res- 
urrection." Hebrews xi, 16, 35. Faith 
plainly overleaped the dismal sojourn 
in sheol, and planted itself within the 
region of hope be3^ond. The later He- 
brews descried a time when the dead 
should arise and sing. Isaiah xxvi, 19. 
This was meridian light, preceded by a 
long-protracted dawn. 

A dying Jacob strangely interrupts 
his predictions with the ejaculation, 
" I wait (piel form) for thy salvation, 
Jehovah!" Gen. xlix, 18. Job compares 
his sojourn in sheol to the lot of a sen- 
tinel patiently waiting to be relieved, 
xiv, 14, 15 ; see note. The psalmist 
declares God shall not leave his soul in, 
or to, sheol, xvi, 10 ; but He shall ran- 
som it from the hand, that is, the grasp, 
of sheol, xlix, 15 ; (comp. Hos. xiii, 14,) 
and that he himself shall awake in the 
likeness of God, xvii. 15. God shall 

swallow up death forever, n^p, ex- 
claims Isaiah, (xxv, 8, a passage which 
the apostle refers to the resurrection, 
1 Cor. xv, 54,) and "the earth shall 
cast out the rephaim," the dwellers in 
sheol. Isa. xxvi, 19. 

With these views agrees the remark- 
able language of Josephus : " They 
[the Pharisees] also believe that souls 



and said, 2 a How long wilt thou speak 
these things? and how long shall the 



Prov. 1. 22. 



have an immortal vigour in them, and 
that under the earth there will be re- 
wards or punishments, according as 
they have lived virtuously or viciously 
in this life ; and that the latter are to 
be detained in an everlasting prison, 
but that the former shall have power 
to revive and live again." — Antiquities, 
xviii, chap, i, 3. About four centuries 
previously Plato had spoken of "an 
ancient' saying which we," he says, 
"now call to mind, that souls depart- 
ing hence exist there, [in hades,] and 
return hither again, and are produced 
from the dead." — Phcedo, sec. 40. The 
ancient Egyptians, too, according to 
Plutarch, gave the name amenthes to 
" that subterraneous region whither 
they imagine the souls of those who 
die go to after their decease ; a name," 
he says, " which expressly signifies the 
receiver and giver. "— De Iside, ch. xxix. 
The word shaal, the root of sheol, 
has among its significations, to de- 
mand or crave as a loan. 1 Sam. i, 28 ; 
2 Kings vi, 5. See also Furst, s. v. 
Thus the very word itself, like amen- 
thes, may imply that the prey of sheol 
is to be rendered hack. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Bildad's First Address. 
1. Answered Bildad — The struc- 
ture of his address and the doctrine he 
maintains do not differ essentially from 
those of Eliphaz. He, too, sees in af- 
fliction the stern features of retribu- 
tion. The first speaker had assailed 
Job from an intrenchment in the uni- 
versal sinfulness of our race. Bildad 
now renews the assault from an older 
and more impregnable position — the 
inexorable justice of God. From his 
point of view he sees but one side of 
the divine nature — justice. He- coolly 
insinuates that Job's children must 
have been wicked because they were 
killed. h\ this he was sustained by the 
convictions of antiquity, since " sudden 
death, to the ancient mind, bore the as- 
pect of a judgment — a work of the di- 
vine wrath." — Kitio. In like manner, 



CHAPTER VIII. 



75 



words of thy mouth he like a strong 
■wind ? 3 b Doth God pervert judgment? 
or doth the Almighty pervert justice? 
4 If c thy children have sinned against 
him, and he have cast them away 1 for 
their transgression ; 5 d If thou would- 

b Gen. 18. 25 ; Deut. 32. 4 ; 2 Chron. 19. 17 ; chap. 
34. 12, 17 ; Dan. 9. 14; Rom. 3. 5. c Chap. 1.5,18. 



if the parent suffer he must also be a 
sinner. His discourse, therefore, like 
that of Eliphaz, closes with an earnest 
exhortation to repentance. Fortunate- 
ly for us, Bildad is a stickler for antiq- 
uity, since he rescues from oblivion an 
ancient and most precious relic, com- 
bining in symmetrical beauty a three- 
fold simile. Verses 11-19. This an- 
cient poem sings the fate of all those 
who forget God. The spirit of this 
entire discourse sets Bildad before us 
in an unfavourable light. Like Saul of 
Tarsus before his conversion, he is 
zealously affected for God. Bildad also 
would seemingly have been ready to 
carry out his convictions, even at the 
point of the sword. 

The first strophe — The course of 
Divine Providence displays the jus- 
tice of God, 2-7. 

a. Since God cannot pervert the right, 
the death of Job's children shows that they 
must have sinned, 2-4. 

2. A strong wind — Omit like. A 
common figure with poets. The irony 
of Aristophanes furnishes a good com- 
ment : "A vjhirlwind of words is pre- 
paring to burst forth." Job's words are 
also boisterous, but none the less empty. 

3. God... the Almighty — ^K, el, 
and H£>, shaddai. Though differing in 

form, the root idea of both is that of 
power. These, perhaps, were world- 
wide titles of God, while the name Je- 
hovah was confined to the chosen peo- 
ple. Balaam (as well as the Gentile 
Job and his friends) uses the terms el 
and shaddai, (Num. xxiv, 4, 16,) and in 
a juxtaposition similar to that of our 
text. The latter name rarely appears 
in the later books of the Bible. It oc- 
curs nine times in the Pentateuch, 
twice in Ruth, thirty-one times in Job, 
and six times in all the other poets. 
The word shaddai is a plural of pre- 
eminence, probably from shadhadh, " to 



est seek unto God betimes, and make 
thy supplication to the Almighty ; 6 If 
thou wert pure and upright ; surely now 
he would awake for thee, and make the 
habitation of thy righteousness pros- 
perous. 7 Though thy beginning was 

lHeb. in the hand of their traiisgression. 
d Chap. 5. 8 ; 11. 13 ; 22. 23, Ac. 



be strong." Shaddai is the God who 
makes good his covenants, (Gen. xvii, 1, 
see note,) who everywhere enforces his 
will, punishes the wicked, and protects 
the just. Here for the first time ap- 
pears the favourite thought of Job's co- 
reasoners, that an almighty being can- 
not do wrong. Bildad, the apostle of 
inexorable law, contemplated God only 
through the attribute of his almighti- 
ness, from which justice is inseparable. 

4. If — The hypothetical way of put- 
ting the case by no means deadens the 
stroke dealt by the following word, thy 
children. Compare the delicate and 
impersonal allusion of Eliphaz in v, 4. 
And — Better, then. Thus the verse is 
complete in itself. For their trans- 
gression — Then hath he given them 
into the hand of their transgression, as in 
margin. Divine wisdom has ordained 
that wickedness should be its own pun- 
ishment. The law is as unerring as that 
of gravitation. The retributive sting 
may be concealed, but it is none the less 
the endowment of evil. From the mo- 
ment of transgression the elements of 
evil bestir themselves to punish, though 
the stroke be delayed. 

b. Divine Providence, that punishes 
the wicked, will as certainly reward the 
man who conciliates his God, 5-7. 

5. Thou — Emphatic. While the dead 
children cannot, thou mayest repent. 

6. Awake corresponds to the "seek- 
ing early," (betimes,) "inOTI, a verb 

whose root signifies "the early light," 
or "dawn." Underlying the figure is 
the thought that what burdens the 
heart leads to early action. In re- 
sponse to earnest (early) supplication 
God arouses himself — awakes. Hab- 
itation of thy righteousness — The 
abode where thou, when righteous, 
shalt dwell. Bildad insinuates, accord- 
ing to Schultens, that the home of Job 
had been one of wickedness. 



76 



JOB. 



small, yet thy latter end should greatly 
increase. 

8 e For inquire, I pray thee, of the 
former age, and prepare thyself to the 
search of their fathers : 9 (For f we are 

eDeut. 4. 32 ; ch. 15. 18. -/Gen. 47. 9; 1 Chron. 

1. Though — And if. An uncon- 
scious prophecy of what actually took 
place. 

Second long strophe — The wise 

TEACHINGS OF THE ANCIENTS AS RE- 
SPECTS THE MERITED END OF THOSE 
WHO FORGET GOD, 8-19. 

a. Introductory — Praise of the col- 
lective wisdom of the ancients, " the oldest 
patriarchs,'' 1 (Dr. Clarke and Ewald,) 
whose vastly longer lives afforded a vastly 
wider range of experience and observa- 
tion than that enjoyed by Job and his 
brother ephemera, 8-10. 

8. Search — Rather, the results of 
searching — deep wisdom, that which 
comes from profound investigation. 

9. For we (are. . .) yesterday — 
Such is the terse original, as may be 
seen in the English version. The life 
of an individual is too short to com- 
prehend the purposes of God. The 
astronomer gathers up the observations 
of all who have preceded him for a ba- 
sis of reasoning. A like appeal Bildad 
makes to the moral observations of the 
past. Or he may intimate that the ef- 
fusion he is about to cite contains the 
wisdom of one of the most aged patri- 
archs, whose opportunities for ripened 
knowledge far surpassed those of the 
short lives he and Job had thus far 
lived. 

Touching the painful brevity of hu- 
man life, the classics have nothing that 
vies with the abrupt expression of Bil- 
dad. By Sophocles man is called " the 
shadow of smoke," and by iEschylus 
" the image of a shade." Nor is the more 
extended moralizing of Saadi, the Per- 
sian poet, more impressive: "Surely 
the world is like a fading shadow, or 
like a guest who remains a night and 
then departs ; or like a dream which a 
sleeping man has seen, which, when 
the night is gone, has vanished." Com- 
pare 1 Chron. xxix, 15. 

10. Shall not they teach thee — 
Job had confidently said, (vi, 24,) Teach 



but ©/"yesterday, and know 2 nothing, be- 
cause our days upon earth are a shadow : ) 
10 Shall not they teach thee, a?ui tell 
thee, and utter words out of their heart? 

11 <£an tfjerusf) groto up tottf^ 



29. 15 ; chap. 7. 6 ; Psa. 



-2 Hebrew, not. 



me, and Bildad adduces a most remark- 
able passage out of the heart of ancient 
times. He summons the fathers, that 
they may deal Job a crushing blow. 
In the early history of most nations 
knowledge was preserved in the form 
of proverbs, maxims, and apothegms. 
Lacking the advantage of circulated 
books for the transmission of thought, 
they compressed it into as small a com- 
pass as possible, that it might be more 
easily remembered, and thus preserved 
for the generations to come. We have 
before us fragments of a poem (verses 
11-19) that probably came to Bildad 
from a very remote age. Some have 
conjectured that they may be relics of 
some primeval revelation. The imag- 
ery employed, as well as the Egyptian 
words gome, (Coptic, kam,) reed, (pa- 
pyrus,) and ahhou, (flag,) satisfy Carey 
and others that this ancient lay was 
composed in Egypt. 

b. The luxuriant water-reeds that tower 
above the marshes of the Nile, and quickly 
wither when its waters are suddenly with- 
drawn, image forth the short-lived pros- 
perity of the wicked, whose roots take 
hold upon worldly slime and mire rather 
than upon God, 11-13. 

11. The rush — tfjpji, gome, unques- 
tionably the papyrus; thus in the Sep- 
tuagint. This plant flourishes in pools 
of still water, reaching from ten to 
fifteen feet above, and descending two 
or three feet beneath, the surface. The 
plant had a diameter at the bottom of 
about three inches, tapered upward, 
was without leaves, and was crowned 
wi th a graceful tuft, not unlike the broom. 
The ark in which the infant Moses was 
placed was made of this plant. Exod. 
ii, 3. See Isa. xviii, 2 ; xxxv, 1, where 
the word rush is also used. The papyrus 
(hence our word paper) was of great 
renown, because it furnished the ma- 
terial from which the ancients made 
their paper. The process was so sim- 



CHAPTER VIII. 



77 



out tmrc? can tijc flag groto tottf)= 
out toater ? 12 « OTJjtlst et i 5 get 



£7 Psa. 129. 



pie that it may be briefly described. 
The stalk, having been pared, was 
split lengthwise into thin slices, two 
courses of which were laid one above 
the other, crosswise and at right an- 
gles, and glued together, probably by 
the juice of the plant. The plant for- 
merly abounded along the Nile, spring- 
ing up from its mire, but now is wholly 
extinct in Egypt. It is still found in 
two places in Palestine. It grows lux- 




uriously in a swamp at the north end 
of the plain of Gennesaret ; it also cov- 
ers many acres in the inaccessible 
marshes of the Huleh, the ancient Me- 
rom. Tristram thus describes his ex- 
periences in the papyrus marsh of the 
Huleh: "A false step off its roots will 
take the intruder over head in suffo- 
cating peat mud. ... In fact, the whole 
is simply a floating bog of several miles 
square — a very thin crust of vegetation 
over an unknown depth of water ; and 
if the weight of the explorer breaks 
through this, suffocation is imminent. 
Some of the Arabs, who were tilling 
the plain for cotton, assured us that 
even a wild boar never got through it 



tn f)ts greenness, and not cut trotou, 
it tottijeretf) before an» other fjerfi. 

Jer. 17. 6. 

We shot two bitterns, but, in endeav- 
ouring to retrieve them, I slipped from 
the root on which I was standing, and 
was drawn down in a moment, only 
saving myself from drowning by my 
gun, which had providentially caught 
across a papyrus stem." — Land of Is- 
rael, p. 587. Flag — !)nx, {ahhu,) includ- 
ing reeds, grass, particularly Nile grass. 
(Fiirst.) The use of the word in Gen. 
xli, 2, where it is translat- 
ed "meadow," points to 
some specific plant eaten 
by cattle. But little more 
is known about the word 
now than in the times of 
Jerome, who, having in- 
quired of the learned as to 
what it signified, " heard 
from the Egyptians that it 
meant every green herb 
which grew in a marsh." 
Peyron, in his Coptic Lex- 
icon, defines the word in 
the exact language of Je- 
rome. " The edible rush, 
and the beautiful flower- 
ing rush, would either 
meet the requirements of 
the sacred text." — Tris- 
tram, Nat. History of the 
Bible, p. 435. Without 
water — What mire is to 
the papyrus, and water to 
the Nile grass, such is the grace of God 
to the soul. For want of oil the lamps 
of the five foolish virgins went out. 

12. It withereth — Our translators 
have disregarded the (in this case) im- 
portant 1 : while yet it is in its greenness, 
it is uncut, (and) then, sooner than all 
(other) grass, it drieth up. The passage 
strikingly illustrates the estate of the 
hypocrite — the man who forgets God. 
The tall and graceful plant need not 
be cut down that it may suddenly die. 
Take from it the moisture of the marsh, 
and it withers. Thus with one who 
assumes to be what he is not. False 
and characterless he stands. He has 



78 



JOB. 



13 So are tfje patfjs of all tfjat 
forget ekofcr ; auir tfje h f)»pocrite's 
£ope sljall pertsl) x 1 4 Sl^fjose Ijope 
sfjall oe cut off, au& tofjose trust 
sAaW 6e 3 a spifcer's toeo* 15 'J^e 
sljall lean upon fjts fjottse, out tt 
sjall not staulr: ije sljall ijolir it 



//Chapter 11. 20; 18. 14; 27. 8; Psalm 112. 10; 
Proverbs 10. 28. 3 Hebrew, a spider's house, 



no life of God in the soul. "Withdraw 
the grace of God, and his nakedness 
stands self-confessed. He withers be- 
fore he dies. Few are the exceptions 
to the law that the character of men is 
known to their fellows before they are 
cut down. The scene of the first three 
verses of this poem is evidently the 
Nile. The hot sun dries up the marsh 
water, and the plants perish. Still not 
far away rolls the majestic river, some- 
times, as we have seen, called the ocean. 
In like manner the sinner perishes in 
the morass, not far from the river of life. 

13. Forget God — Ingratitude is a 
burning wind that dries up the foun- 
tains of piety and the streams of love. 
(St. Bernard.) The hypocrite — Pjjn. 

At the root of this word, occurring so 
often in this book, unquestionably lies 
the idea of veiling or concealing. The 
word also signifies the ungodly, which 
is the meaning that Gesenius and most 
interpreters of Job give it. Hitzig, 
however, renders as in the text. Our 
English word in its Greek original ex- 
plains itself. A hypocrite is one who 
acts a part, like a stageplayer. (See on 
our text two sermons by Dr. South.) 

b. Such a man can build on nothing 
securely; (Hirtzel;) supports, apparently 
the firmest, fail him, 14-19. 

The preceding image parts asunder 
into similes; the one of "a spider's 
house," confessedly frail, and the other 
of a succulent garden plant, whose 
" house of stones " is more enduring — 
yet destruction in either case is cer- 
tain. The same word house, in verses 
14, 15, 17, is pivotal in the entire com- 
parison. Job's home had been swept 
away, but the prospective habitation 
of righteousness (verse 6) shall endure. 

14. A spider's web — Rather, hoicse. 
Comp. Isa. lix, 5. A favourite Oriental 
figure. Thus Mohammed: " The like- 



fast, out it sljall not enfrure. 16?^e 
is green Before tije sun, auir f)ts 
orauei) sijootetf) fortf) in fjts gar= 
treu* 17 3%is roots are torappetr 
aoout tije fjeap, and seetl) tije place 
of stones* 18 k Kf ije &estro» tJtut 
front l)ts place, tflen it sftall treng 

Isaiah 59. 5, 6. * Chapter 27. 18. 7c Chapter 

7. 10 ; 20. 9 ; Psalm 37. 36. 

ness of those who take other patrons 
besides God is as the likeness of the 
spider which maketh herself a house; 
but the weakest of all houses surely is 
the house of the spider; if they knew 
this."— Sur. xxix, 40, entitled The Spi- 
der. The Arabs have a proverb that 
"time destroys the wall of the well- 
built house as well as the web of the 
spider." The Chinese call the spider 
the wise insect, a view which agrees with 
that of Solomon, who classes it among 
creatures exceedingly wise. Proverbs 
xxx, 24-28. Frail as is the spider's 
house, it is the best and strongest she 
can build ; but not thus with the god- 
less man. 

16. Before the sun — "In the glow 
of the sun, where other plants wither, 
it thrives and remains fresh." — Hirtzel. 
The poem has spoken of marsh plants ; 
it now suddenly introduces a climbing 
plant of the garden, probably parasiti- 
cal. This was more familiar, and would 
better illustrate Bildad's theme. 

17. About the heap — Literally, Over 
a heap (of stones) are his roots inter- 
twined: he seeth a house of stones. A 
stone heap (73) sometimes served for a 

memorial of honour. Gen. xxxi, 46-48. 
Joseph, (also of Egypt,) on the contra- 
ry, was a fruitful bough, whose branch- 
es ran over the wall. Gen. xlix, 22. 
Seeth the place of stones — Rather, 
A house of stones. " He is like a tree 
which seems firmly rooted in a heap 
of stones, and looks down, as it were, 
with a domineering aspect and a proud 
consciousness of strength on a house of 
stone, in which he appears to be firmly 
built as in a marble palace ; yet he will 
soon be withered and rooted up, and 
vanish from the face of the earth." — 
Wordsworth. Comp. Matt, xiii, 5, 6. 

18. If he (God) destroy— Or the 
subject of the verb may be indefinite. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



79 



fjtnt, saying, K Ijabe not seen tfjee. 
19 Beljolfcr, tijis is tfje jo» of f)is 
toaw, an& 'out of tfje eartf) shall 
others groto. 

20 Behold, God will not cast away a 
perfect man, neither will ho 4 help the 
evil doers : 21 Till he fill thy mouth 
with laughing, and thy lips with 5 re- 



l Psa. 113. 7. 



: Heb. take the ungodly by 
the hand. 



The plant was apparently a useless 
growth, which any one would do well 
to destroy. Him — Or, It. The inter- 
weaving of the image and its object 
throughout this entire citation is a sign. 
not only of its great antiquity, but 
also of its foreign origin. The He- 
brew mind wielded an imagination 
which was always clear and distinct. 
Deny him — The earth that had given 
the plant its life is moved with such 
a sense of shame as to deny that 
it had seen him, (or it.) A powerful 
personification. For nature's abhor- 
rence of human fungi, see xxvii, 21-23. 

19. The joy of his way— Deeply 
ironical. With a touch the poet dis- 
closes hidden deeps of misery and of 
doom. Shall others grow — iriK, an- 
other, used collectively. One crop of 
weeds is followed by another. The 
law of nature in the moral world is not 
the boasted law of science — "the se- 
lection of the best;" for, without the 
hand of the tiller, the worse overpow- 
ers the better. The wheat soon suc- 
cumbs before the tares. One genera- 
tion of evil doers is followed by "an- 
other and another." In the protracted 
struggle between good and evil, evil 
alone has power to perpetuate itself. 
It may never come to pass that a gen- 
eration of the godly shall bring forth 
a like godly generation. Of the hun- 
dred generations that have already 
lived, each one has been evil. Dark is 
the mystery. The labourer for God, like 
the sower in the parable, must toil on 
against fearful odds, knowing that with 
each generation he must begin anew. 

The concluding short strophe gives 
an application of the wisdom of the an- 
cients to the case of Job, 20-22. 

Hirtzel substantially reads the mor- 
al thus : " The same law of cause 



ioicing. 22 They that hate thee shall 
be "clothed with shame ; and the dwell- 
ing-place of the wicked 6 shall come to 
naught. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THEN Job answered and said, 2 I 
know it is so of a truth : but how 



5 Heb. shouting for joy. m Psa. 35. 26 ; 109.29. 

6 Heb. shall not be. 

and effect holds in the moral as in the 
physical world. The drying up of the 
waters is the cause of the quick with- 
ering of the plant ; so alienation from 
God is the cause of quickly decaying 
earthly bliss." This substantiates the 
doctrine of justice taught in the suc- 
ceeding strophe, 20-22. 

20. Help — Literally, Grasp the hand; 
that is, to protect evil doers against 
the consequences of their actions. The 
sentiment negatively expressed is that 
of ver.- e 4. 

22. Clothed with shame — $27, 

-T 

clothe, when employed metaphorically, 
is for the most part used of righteous- 
ness, (xxix, 14;) also of the divine Spirit, 
light, glory, etc. ; here, (also Psa. xxxv, 
26,) with concealed sarcasm, the signi- 
fication is, their best attire is shame. 
Dwelling-place— In the place of D 1 ^, 

house, three times appearing in the an- 
cient poem, we now have 7HK, ohel, tent, 

happily chosen to set forth the transi- 
toriness of the home of the wicked in 
comparison with that of the spider, and 
even the running vine. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Job's Second Reply. Chaps, ix, x. 

1. Job answered — He admits that 
man cannot answer for his sins before 
God. The mighty Monarch over na- 
ture and man, unseen and irresistibly 
accomplishes his implacable will, over- 
powering even "the helpers of Rahab." 
Blinded and staggering, Job can nei- 
ther see nor grasp aught but an abso- 
lute God, with whom power overtops 
every other attribute. He dares not 
appear before such a Being, since his 
own arm would be impotent, and all 
attempts at self-justification would be 



80 



JOB. 



should a man be just i with God ? 3 If 
he will contend with him, he cannot 
answer him one of a thousand. 4 h Heis 



a Psalm 143. 2 ; Romans 3. 



perverted into his own condemnation. 
Thoughts of the triumphant wicked, 
and the sufferings of the righteous, 
sweep him away into defiant, if not 
blasphemous, charges against God — 
and yet there is not altogether a defec- 
tion of the soul, for in the midst of his 
despair he recounts in the spirit of 
faith the mercies and love of the Lord 
in his creative and preserving care. 
Chap, x, 8-12. His despair is intensi- 
fied by the thought that no daysman 
between God and man had yet ap- 
peared competent to meet the emer- 
gencies of evil. Chnpter x. Having 
nothing more to hope for in life, he 
boldly calls in question the eternal and 
all powerful One, who, having the 
wicked in safe custody, needs not to 
make such speedy and painful inquisi- 
tion for human iniquity. Sinking in 
the quicksands of doubt, he finds some 
solace in the thought that the divine 
Artificer cannot destroy the work of 
his own hand. In faith and strength 
of heart Job has advanced but little 
beyond the despair of his first great 
lamentation. Chap. iii. This is evinced 
by his condensed repetition, in vers. 18, 
19, of apart of the lamentation, (11-16.) 
" Do we not see in these two chapters 
(ix, x) how the human heart is indeed 
tossed hither and thither between the 
proudest presumption and the most pu- 
sillanimous despair?" — Andrea. 

First division — The fact that God 

IS IMMUTABLY JUST (vih, 3) AND ABSO- 
LUTELY PURE, (iv, 17,) DOES NOT SOLVE 
THE MYSTERY OF THE IMPLACABLE AN- 
TAGONISM TO THE RIGHTEOUS ON THE 
PART OF AN OMNIPOTENT GOD, 2-12. 

Strophe a — Job ironically grants the 
propositions of his antagonists, but only 
as non sequiturs. In almost the same 
breath they have insisted that "God re- 
wards the just,''' and that "none are just 
before God" titus apparently contradict- 
ing themselves. Taking advantage of 
their discomfiture he redoubles his bloios, 
plying them ivith the most momentous 
questions man can ask, 2-4. 



wise in heart, and mighty in strength : 
who hath hardened himself against him, 
and hath prospered ? 5 Which removeth 

1 Or, before God ? b Chap. 36. 5. 

2. Man (BJfaN, a mortal) be just 

with God, (^N, the Strong)— The key 

to the subsequent glowing description 
of the terror- working God (5-11) is 
found in this antithesis of mortal man 
to an omnipotent God. Prayers and 
oblations, temples and altars, sacrifices 
aud self-tortures, lustral waters and 
bleeding victims, bear witness to a uni- 
versal consciousness of sin and guilt 
— to man's abiding sense that he is not 
acceptable to his God ; moreover, that 
the wrath of that God has gone forth 
against him, and must by some means 
be appeased. Whence that sense? By 
what means did it so deeply ingrain it- 
self in man's nature ? It antedates all 
other merely human knowledge, and 
points, as with a wand, to certain deep, 
underlying, and congenital facts of a 
fallen nature everywhere recognized in 
Scripture. The only religion which 
proffers a satisfactory answer to the 
questions of Job is that which alone 
gives peace with God. Rom. v, 1. 

3. One of a thousand — Referring 
either to questions with which God, in 
case of argument, might ply the soul, 
(as in chap, xxxviii,) or more probably 
to the sins which that soul has commit- 
ted. It is an overwhelming thought, 
that in the sight of God the sins of the 
individual are reckoned by the thou- 
sand, for not one of which can he give 
account. 

4. Hardened against — Bidden de- 
fiance, or braved him. Prospered — 

D?£J\ remained uninjured; that is, un- 



punished. (Fiirst.) All opposition to 
God is not only futile, but dangerous. 

Strophes b and c, three verses each 
— Job, having once conceived thepoiver of 
God, becomes fascinated by the very tre- 
mendousne*s of it ; the invincible might 
of his and mans adversary charms liis 
eye, and compels him to gaze and shud- 
der, and run over it, feature after feat- 
ure, unable to ivithdraw his look from 
it, (Davidson,) 5-10. 



CHAPTER IX. 



81 



the mountains, and they know not; 
which overturneth them in his anger; 

6 Which c shaketh the earth out of her 
place, and d the pillars thereof tremble; 

7 Which commandeth the sun, and it 



clsa. 2. 19, 21: 
dChap. 26. 11.- 



Has. 2. 6, 21 ; Heb. 12. 26.- 
-eGen. 1. 6; Psa. 104. 2,3. 



5. And they know not — A Hebra- 
ism for suddenly, in a moment. Tyn- 
dale thus renders it : " He translatethe 
the mountaynes or eve?- they be aware" 
The unjustifiable translation of the Tar- 
gum, "They know not that He hath 
overturned them in his wrath," is adopt- 
ed by the Yulgate, Ewald, etc. Chal- 
mers pronounces this description of 
God's power one of the finest sketches 
of natural theology to be found in Scrip- 
ture, and, of course, far excelling all that 
any uninspired writer of antiquity has 
left behind him. 

6. Pillars thereof — Job speaks af- 
ter the popular notion of the day, of the 
earth as resting on pillars, as we still 
speak of the rising of the sun. That 
he had a correct knowledge of the 
spherical form of the earth, is evident 
from chapter xxvi, 7, where see note. 
Dillmann explains the pillars, by the 
roots of the mountains, which sustained 
the earth as their summits did the 
heavens. Jerome, that they figura- 
tively represent its stability. 

7. Commandeth — Rather, speaketh. 
God has but to speak to the sun, and it 
shall cease to rise. The rising of the 
sun and the shining of the stars, day 
and night, alike depend upon Him. 
Sealeth up the stars — An act ex- 
pressive of their total covering; for 
who would dare to break the seal of 
God? (Umbreit.) Job may mean the 
disappearance of stars — an astronomi- 
cal event that may have been noted at a 
very early day. Schultens explains 
the entire verse by the flood ; Warbur- 
ton by the plague of darkness in Egypt ; 
and others by the staying of the sun in 
its course at the command of Joshua. 
The text, however, speaks of the gen- 
eral exercise of the power of God. God 
can, if he will, reverse the action of na- 
ture as easily as overrule it. 

8. Alone — Creation is solely the 
work of God. This gives him sole pro- 
prietorship. In argument the word 

Vol. V.— 7 



riseth not ; and sealeth up the stars ; 
8 e Which alone spreadeth out the heav- 
ens, and treadeth upon the 2 waves of 
the sea; 9 f Which maketh 3 Arcturus, 
Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers 



2Heb. heights. — -/Gen. 1. 16; chap.38.31,&c. 
Amos 5. 8. 3 Heb. Ash, Cecil, and Cimah. 



''alone" tells against Job. Spread- 
eth out — npj. Hitzig and Umbreit ren- 
der, oendeth, (the arch of the sky,) an act 
which God, and he alone, still perpet- 
uates. Waves of the sea — Literally, 
heights, the highest waves. The Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphic for the impossible, 
was a man. walking on water. God's 
footsteps tread the heights of the sea — 
a sublime conception, which, like the' 
whole description of God's works, se- 
lects outstanding points, " illuminating 
only with a single ray the heaven- 
reaching heights of the divine power." 
Some argue a strophic arrangement of 
the bock from the article placed before 
a participle at the beginning of each 
verse in strophe b, while the parti- 
ciples in strophe c, similarly situated, 
dispense with it. From the fifth verse 
to the eleventh, the verbs in the pres- 
ent tense indicate that God's work of 
creation, as well as of providence, is 
ever going on. 

9. Arcturus — Cty, 'hash. Fiirst de- 
rives it from lioush, to group together. 
Probably the constellation of the Great 
Bear, ( Ursa Major,) which the Jews of 
Bagdad and the Arabs of the Persian 
Gulf still call by the name of Ash. In 
the days of Homer it was called the 
icagon, or wain, from its fancied resem- 
blance to a wagon with its three horses 




CONSTELLATION OF THE PLOUGH. 

O. T. 



82 



JOB. 



of the south; 10 g Which doeth great 
things past finding out ; yea, and wonders 
without number. 11 h Lo, he goeth by 



O Chap. 5. 9 ; Psa. 71. 15 ; 145. 3 : Rom. 11. 33. 
h Chap. 23. 8, 9 ; 35. 14. 



in line — a notion still preserved in En- 
gland in the name it bears of Charles' 
wain, (wagon.) The Romans called its 
seven bright stars the septentriones — 
the seven ploughing oxen— An idea we still 
keep in our name, the plough. Of these 
seven stars, constituting the plough, 
two (a and J3) are known as the point- 
ers, from their use in pointing out the 

pole star. Orion — 7 S D3, kesil; the 

strong one ; (Fiirst ;) the foolish, (Gese- 
nius.) This cluster of stars was con- 
ceived to be a giant walking along the 
vault of heaven. The Arabs thus des- 
ignate it. Other Orientals appear to 
have regarded the constellation as an 
impious giant fastened to the sky. Ac- 
cording to the Persian mythology, this 
giant was Nimrod, the founder of Bab- 
ylon, whose name they gave to this 
constellation. (See Gesenius, Thesau- 
rus, ii, 701.) Some suppose these tra- 
ditions look back to the revolt of the 
angels, and embody the supposed fate 
of their leader. ' t Orion_ _stands far 
aloft 1 _fliejreeminexii_glory: „and-w-©»- 
der of the starry universe. Judged by 
the^nIy~criterion applicable, it is per- 
haps so remote that its light does not 
reach us in less than fifty or sixty thou- 
sand years ; and as, at the same time, 
it occupies so large an apparent por- 
tion of the heavens, how stupendous 
must be the extent of the nebula ! It 
would seem almost that if all other 
clusters hitherto gaged were collected 
and compressed into one, they would 
not surpass this mighty group, in which 
every wisp, every winkle, is a sand 
heap of stars." — Nichol, Architecture 
of the Heavens, p. 147. Pleiades — 
nD' , 3, kimah, a little crowd, or group. 

(Fiirst.) The Arabs give this constel- 
lation a name signifying knot of stars, 
because of the number of closely united 
stars. In like manner the idea of close 
union appears in the various names this 
strikingly beautiful constellation bears 
among all eastern nations. The name 



me, and I see Mm not : he passeth on 
also, but I perceive him not. 12 'Be- 
hold, he taketh away, 4 who can hinder 



■ilsa. 45. 9 ; Jer. 18. 6 ; Rom. 9. 20. 4Hfeb. who 

can turn Mm away ? chap. 11. 10. 

ordinarily given to it of "the seven 
stars," is recognized by Ovid, who says, 

Quae septem dici, sex tamen esse solent. 
—Fasti, iv, 170. 

indicating, though they were called 
seven, there were but six. The Greek 
mythology hands us down touching 
legends over this supposed lost star. 
According to some, it had been smitten 
by lightning ; according to others, the 
seventh hid herself from shame that 
she alone had married a mortal, while 
her sisters were the wives of different 
deities. The Persian poets compare 
the seven stars to a bouquet formed of 
jewels. Hafiz says, " The heavens bear 
up thy poems — the pearly rosette of 
the Pleiades as the seal of immortal- 
ity." — Beigel. Dr. Good thus renders 
a citation from Hafiz : — 

Now the bright Pleiades the concave gem, 
As lucid pearls the garment's glittering hem. 

See chap, xxxviii, 31. Chambers of 
the south — That is, the veiled regions 
of the southern hemisphere. (Fiirst.) 
The constellations mentioned are chief- 
ly to be seen in the northern hemi- 
sphere, and, therefore, the poet adds a 
reference to " stars which never come 
into our view, but which lie hid, as it 
were, in chambers and secret recesses." 
— Schultens. 

Strophe d — After the extended descrip- 
tion of the divine Omnipotence, the short, 
hasty glance which in this strophe is cast 
on miserable, mortal man makes an im- 
pression so much the more pointed. 
Verses 11, 12. (Schlottmann.) 

11. An important disclosure of the 
spiritual nature of Deity. Passeth on 
— Glideth, or sweepeth, by. The myste- 
rious Ppri) hhalaph, used by Job in iv, 15, 

of a spirit ; in xiv, 7, of growth in na- 
ture ; and in xi, 10 of the solemn march 
of God to judgment. The word is hap- 
pily adapted to express the unseen 
movements of nature and of nature's 
God. See also verse 26. 

12. He taketh away — There is 



CHAPTER IX. 



83 



him ? who will say unto him, "What doest 
thou? 

1 3 If God will not withdraw his anger, 
k the 5 proud helpers do stoop under him. 
14 How much less shall I answer him, 
and choose out my words to reason with 
him ? 1 5 1 Whom, though I were right- 



ifcChap. 26. 12. 5Heb. helpers of pride, or, 



nothing that declares man's impotency 
more than his powerlessness to save 
his loved ones from death. Job re- 
gards the work of death as the work 
of God. 

Second division, 13-35. First section : 
three strophes of four verses each — 
The divine Omnipotence is not only 
irresistible, overbearing the cause 
op the creature, but it involves 
the wicked and the good in one 
common fate, 13-24. 

Strophe a — A fortiori application to 
Jot himself; the mightiest bend beneath 
Ms almightiness, much more suffering 
Job, notwithstanding his case be urgent 
and just, 13-16. 

13. If God will not withdraw, 
etc. — God withdraws not his anger: 
literally, Does not cause it to return. 
The if vitiates the sense. " He takes 
his anger not back till it has accom- 
plished its work." — Dillmann. His 
anger is irresistible. Proud helpers 
— Literally, Helpers of Rahab, tumultu- 
ous helpers. (Fiirst.) The Septuagint 
renders it, "Sea monsters under heav- 
en." Rahab was the poetical name 
for Egypt. Egypt, in the later books 
of the Bible, typified tumultuous vio- 
lence, and was called sea monster and 
leviathan. Psa. lxxxvii. 4 ; lxxxix, 10; 
Isa. xxx, 7 ; li, 9, etc. Olshausen sug- 
gests that Rahab s helpers may be the 
hosts of Egypt overwhelmed in the 
sea. Ewald, Hirtzel, and others con- 
jecture, (but without ground, though 
seemingly justified by the Septuagint,) 
that Job had in mind some legend of a 
sea monster that revolted against heav- 
en, and was subdued with all his help- 
ers, and chained to the sky in the form 
of a constellation — either the Balena. 
Bellua, or Pistrix, to each of which there 
is some similar tradition attached. The 
Babylonian legends abound in allusions 
to the great dragon, Tiamat, who was 



eous, yet would I not answer, but I would 
make supplication to my judge. 16 If 
I had called, and he had answered me: 
yet would I not believe that he had 
hearkened unto my voice. 17 For he 
breaketh me with a tempest, and mul- 
tiplied my wounds m without cause. 



strength. 1 Chap. 10. 15. 



Chap. 2. 3 ; 34. tj. 



finally destroyed by the god Bel. "And 
the gods, her helpers, who went beside 
her, trembled, feared, and broke up 
themselves." — G-eo. Smith's Chaldean 
Account of Genesis, p. 98. For the sup- 
posed connexion between turbuhtu, the 
place or den of the monster, and Ra- 
hab, see Ibid., p. 90. The view of 
Schmidt and Dr. Tayler Lewis accords 
with the Introduction and several pas- 
sages of the book, to wit, that Rahab 
may mean Satan, of whom Job seems 
to have had some idea as his great en- 
emy. The argument of Job shows that 
he speaks of infinitely powerful beings, 
(which is the idea of the Yulgate, 
qui portant orbem ;) but whether from 
among the gigantic creations of the 
primitive world, either land or sea, or 
from the fallen magnates of the super- 
human world, does not so readily ap- 
pear. See note on chap, xxvi, 12. 

14. How. . .shall I answer him — 
In the Hebrew the "I" is emphatic; 
such as I. 

15. Righteous — In the right, used 
in a forensic sense. 

16. If I had called — From verses 
12-15 he supposes the case that God 
would take the initiative in summoning 
to trial ; now, that he himself would : 
Should I summon him, and he answer 
me, I would hardly believe my senses 
that there could be such condescension 
and sense of justice! 

Strophe b — In the ravings of his de- 
spair, (see vi, 3,) Job declares his suffer- 
ings to be a tangible proof that God may 
be almighty but not just, 17-20. 

17. Breaketh me — P]^, same as 
in Gen. iii, 15, bruise; the word also 
signifies "rub in pieces" — destroy. 
" He w r ho would crush me in a tem- 
pest, and multiply my wounds without 
cause, will not suffer me to take my 
breath, but would surfeit me with bit- 
terness." 



84 



JOB. 



18 He will not suffer me to take ray 
breath, but filleth me with bitterness. 

19 Iflspeak of strength, lo, n heis strong : 
and if of judgment, who shall set me a 
time to plead? 20 If I justify myself, 
mine own mouth shall condemn me : if 
I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove 



n Psa. 62. 11 ; Matt. 6. 13 ; 1 Cor. 1. 25 ; 10. 



18. Take my breath — So incessant 
is the sorrow with which God visits 
him. See chap. vii. 19. 

19. If. . .of strength — Many mod- 
erns see in the abrupt and startling 
7ft?], behold! and TPjfr *D, who will 

cite me! the responses of Deity, and 
read, If it be a question of the strength 
of the strong. G-od replies, Behold, 
(me,) here I am. And if of right, God 
again replies, WIw will cite me ? Com- 
pare Jeremiah xlix, 19. Davidson 
regards the whole verse as words of 
God, and remarks: The sufferer im- 
agines for a moment that he had cited 
his great adversary ; his citation is at- 
tended with unexpected success. God 
appears — appears in a whirlwind, dash- 
ing his challenger about, (17 a,) multi- 
plying his plagues, (17 b,) filling him 
with the bitterest pains, (18,) coming 
in magnificence, and rioting in the ju- 
bilant consciousness of omnipotence, 
as if to say, I have been cited, chal- 
lenged. Was it to a trial of strength ? 
here I am ! To a trial at law ? who 
will venture to implead me? 

20. 1. . .perfect— "Oaron. Were I to 

T T 

declare myself innocent, it (my mouth, 
though some make "God" the sub- 
ject of the verb) should show (literally, 
make) me perverse, "betray me." Re- 
nan sees in this a bold hyperbole. " If 
Job plead against God, his own mouth 
would betray him and say the contrary 
of w r hat he intended." 

Strophe c — The consciousness of his 
innocence not only leads him to self-asser- 
tion, but to a most violent arraignment 
of God as an unjust judge. The arraign- 
ment involves a twofold count — the de- 
struction of the innocent and guilty to- 
gether, and the consignment of the world 
into the hands of the wicked, 21-24. 

21. I [am] perfect — Innocent. He- 
brew same as above. What he had 



me perverse. 2 1 Though I were perfect, 
yet would I not know my soul: I would 
despise my life. 22 This is one thing, 
therefore I said it, ° He destroyeth the 
perfect and the wicked. 23 If the 
scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at 
the trial of the innocent. 24 The earth 



o Eccles. 9. 2, 3 ; Ezek. 21. 3. 



hesitated in the preceding verse to 
speak, from fear of the divine power, 
Job will now declare at all hazards. 
This is one of the many extraordinary 
revulsions of feeling in this book, to be 
accounted for only by extreme agony 
of soul and body. Job asserts his in- 
nocence recklessly and defiantly. "I 
know not my soul," he says; I value 
it not, or. I care not for it; (similar use 
of verb "know" to Gen. xxxix. 6;) "1 
despise my life." Others, (Conant and 
Lewis,) with less reason, take the ex- 
pression " I perfect" to be used hypo- 
thetically, in the same manner as in the 
preceding verse. Job would not esteem 
himself " perfect," because of his vivid 
knowledge of his own soul, or because 
of true humility, which may be regard- 
ed as an inseparable element of per- 
fection. 

22. This is one thing — It is all one, 
"a matter of indifference whether I 
live or die." — Dillmann. The Chaldee 
rendering, " There is one and the same 
measure," Wordsworth thus follows : 
"There is one and the same thing to 
the wicked and righteous;" but this 
would tautologically anticipate the 
same thought in the next clause. "It 
is all one," Job cries; I have nothing 
more to hope or fear ; therefore I will 
say it (out with it) — the good and the 
wicked are involved in the same doom. 
He destroys; (God, whom he names 
not,) thus giving terrific emphasis to 
the question in verse 24. Verses 23 
and 24 give the specifications under 
this charge. 

23. Jerome remarks that "in the 
whole book Job says nothing more 
bitter than this " — a volcanic outbreak 
of unspeakable misery. He will laugh 
— Schultens and others read, it will 
laugh, referring to the scourge. Though 
the figure be not too bold for poetry, 
the text is better. 



CHAPTER IX. 



85 



is given into the hand of the wicked: 
p he covereth the faces of the judges 
thereof; if not, where, and- who is lie? 
25 Now q my days are swifter than a 
post : they flee away, they see no good. 



p 2 Samuel 15. 30; 19. 4: Jeremiah 14. 4. 

q Chapter 7. 6, 7. 6 Or, ships of Ebeh ; He- 



24. " In this second illustration there 
is an advance in the thought, in so far 
as here a part, at least, of the wicked are 
excepted from the general ruin ; nay, 
appear even as threatening the same 
to the pious.'' — Schlottmann. Cov- 
ereth the faces — Criminals had their 
faces covered prior to execution. Es- 
ther vii, 8. A like custom prevailed 
among the Greeks and Romans. (Quin- 
tus Curtius, vi, 8; Livy, i, 26.) God, 
Job might say, treats the judges, who 
are presumed to be the best of men, 
as malefactors, as in my case. The 
Chaldee paraphrase, however, furnish- 
es a better meaning: "He hideth jus- 
tice from the face of the judges there- 
of," so that they cannot distinguish 
right from wrong, and, therefore, judge 
unjustly. Unjust judges, like wicked 
kings, are sent for the punishment of 
men. In illustration, Drusius cites 
Menander : " Every wife is from God: 
the good from God, benevolent ; the 
bad from God, angry." If not, where, 
and who is he — If (it is) not (so) 
now, who then does it? If God be not 
the author of this state of affairs, who, 
then, is ? 

Second section, in strophes of four, 
three, and four verses — Job's case a 

PRE-EMINENT ILLUSTRATION OF THIS 
MORAL COXFUSIOX, 25-35. 

Strophe a — The premature destruction 
of his life, and his intolerable burden of 
sorrows, show God's estimate of him to 
be that of an evil-doer, 25-28. 

25. A post — A courier. In eastern 
countries messages are transmitted by 
couriers, who, having at their com- 
mand relays of horses, dromedaries, 
or men, travel with almost incredible 
speed. Comp. Esth. viii, 10. "Noth- 
ing mortal travels so fast as Persian 
messengers. The entire plan is a Per- 
sian invention." — Herodotus. See fur- 
ther, viii, 98. Strabo tells us (xv, chap, 
ii, 10) that the orders for the execution 
of Parmenio were conveyed a distance 



26 They are passed away as the 6 swift 
ships : r as the eagle that hasteth to the 
prey. 27 s If I say, I will forget my 
complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, 
and comfort myself; 28 ' I am afraid of 



brew, ships of de-sire. /• Habakkuk 1. 8. 

8 Cha pter 7. 13. 1 Psalm 119. 120. 

of over eight hundred and fifty miles 
in eleven days. 

26. Passed away as — Literally, 
Glide along with. }2?n. See note on 

: t 

verse 11. The poet, in a figure finely 
conceived, links his passing days with 
the gliding of a river, whose silent, in- 
sensible current serves only to hasten 
the motion of the frail, swift craft its 
bosom bears. The frailty of the skiff 
Job speaks of images well the frail 
voyager of life, as he, too, glides along 
the stream of time. Swift ships — 
PQK, ebeh, reed, or papyrus. Light in 

their structure, skiffs made of papyrus 
shot along the Nile with great swift- 
ness. Compare Isa. xviii, 2. Heliodo- 
rus (AEthiop., x, 460) speaks of such 
boats as having been exceedingly swift. 
Plutarch describes Isis going in search 
of the body of Osiris in a bark made 




Large boat with sail, a double mast, and many 
rowers.— In a tomb at Kom Ahmar. 

of papyrus. The text illustrates the 
swiftness of time by figures drawn from 
objects that in Job's days were swiftest 
on land, in the water, and in the air 
The reader will mark the gradation. 

27. Heaviness, etc. — Literally, Face, 
dark looks. Comfort myself — Look 
cheerful. The original expresses the 
brightening up of the countenance by 
an exquisite metaphor taken from the 
lighting up of the sky when the clouds 
are lifted. Psa. xxxix, 13. 

Strophe b — Job is divinely judged to be 
guilty ; all efforts to free himself from 
guilt will therefore be futile, 29-31. 



86 



JOB. 



all my sorrows, I know that thou u wilt 
not hold me innocent. 29 If 1 he 
wicked, why then labour I in vain? 

30 v If I wash myself with snow water, 
and make my hands never so clean; 

31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the 
ditch, and mine own clothes shall 7 abhor 
me. 32 For w he is not a man, as I am, 
that I should answer him, and we should 
come together in judgment. 33 "Neither 

u Exod. 20. 7. v Jer. 2. 22. 7 Or, make me 

to be abhorred. wEecles. 6. 10; Isa. 45.9; 

Jer. 49. 19 ; Rom. 9. 20. x Verse 19 ; 1 Sam. 2. 

25. 8 Or, umpire ; Heb. one that should ar- 

29. If I be wicked — /, lam to be held 
guilty. Literally, I shall be guilty. Omit 
if. There is no escape from the divine 
determination. 

30. A specimen of abortive labour. 
Snow water was regarded by the 
ancients as possessed of peculiarly 
cleansing power. Thus Petronius, (in 
Satyr:) " We reclined at table, the boys 
having poured snow water upon our 
hands." In the fable of Lockman, the 
black man rubs his body with snow in 
order to make it white. Mohammed 
prays, " Lord, wash me from my sins, 
white with water, snow, and ice." 
Never so clean — Literally, Clean with 
tyc- "113, bor, was a vegetable salt, ob- 
tained from the ashes of the kali, a 
plant still found in Arabia. Our word, 
alkali, (Arabic,) the kali, is derived from 
this plant. Comp. Jer. ii, 22. Among 
the earliest prayers of the Yedas we 
find the recognition of man's moral de- 
filement: "Purifying waters cleanse 
from me whatever is impure or crimi- 
nal; every evil I have done by vio- 
lence, by imprecations, by injustice." 
— Rig Veda, i, 38. (See Hard wick, 
Christ and Other Masters, i, 1 83.) 

31. Truly man's defilement must be 
great if so be, after he has cleansed 
himself with the best detergents of his 
day, God's purity would cast him, the 
naked one, into a slimy pit, so that his 
own clothes should conceive a horror 
of him — "start back in terror at the 
idea of being put on and defiled by 
such a horrible creature." — Schlott- 
mann. See sermon by Dr. Chalmers, 
(verses 30-33,) on an estimate of the 
morality that is without godliness. 

Strophe c — Ttie cause of Job's inability 
to make out his innocency is not his guilt, 



is there any 8 daysman betwixt us, that 
might lay nis hand upon us both. 

34 y Let him take his rod away from 
me, and let not his fear terrify me: 

35 Then would I speak, and not fear 
him ; 9 but it is not so with me. 

CHAPTEE X. 
Y a soul is I weary of my life : I will 
leave my complaint upon myself ; 



M 



Que. y Chap. 13. 20, 21, 22 ; 


33. 7 ; Psa. 39. 10. 


9 Heb. but I am not so 


with myself. 


rtl Kings 19. 4; chap. 7. 16 


Jonah 4. 3, 8. 


1 Or, cut off while I live. 





but the character and conditions of his 
accuser — , to wit, his omnipotence and 
unamenableness to human dealing and 
treatment. (Davidson,) 32-35. 

33. Neither is there any days- 
man — See Excursus IY, page 90 ; also 
sermon by Dr. Chalmers, on " Necessity 
of a Mediator between God and Man." 

35. But it is not so with me — For 
not so am I with myself. " I am not 
myself," (Yulgate;) that is, "I have 
no command of myself." Hitzig and 
Umbreit render it, "Eor so I know 
not myself." The margin, which is 
literal, comes nearer to the meaning. 
Job cannot appear for himself before 
God. The divine terror is such that 
he would not be able to speak. Hence 
the need of some one to mediate with 
God for him. Or it may possibly give 
the reason why the rod should be taken 
away — that he is "not conscious of 
the" great "guilt" (thus the Septua- 
gint) which only could have brought 
upon him so great calamity. This 
would impliedly account for the diffi- 
cult word so in the text. 

CHAPTER X. 
Third division, chap. x. First sec- 
tion: Exordium, verse 1, and double 
strophe — God's treatment of men is 

A REFLECTION UPON THE DIVINE NA- 
TURE, AND INVOLVES IT IN SELF-CON- 
TRADICTION, 2-12. 

Yerse 1 expresses itself " in three 
convulsive sobs, like the sparse, large 
drops before the storm, excusing and 
introducing the pathetic wail of a 
crushed heart." — Davidson. 

1. Upon myself — Rather, with my- 
self. He will give free course to his 
complaint. 



CHAPTER X. 



87 



b I will speak in the bitterness of my 
soul. 2 1 will say unto God, Do not 
condemn me ; show me wherefore thou 
contendest with me. 3 Is it good unto 
thee that thou shouldest oppress, that 
thou shouldest despise 2 the work of 
thine hands, and shine upon the counsel 
of the wicked? 4 Hast thou eyes of 
flesh ? or c seest thou as man seeth ? 
5 Are thy days as the days of man? are 



b Chap. 7. 11. 2 Heb. the labour of thine 

hands; Psa. 138. 8; Isa. 64. 8. el Sam. 16. 7. 

3 Heb. It is upon thy knowledge. 



a. Oppressive and precipitate dealing 
with his creatures is not becoming their 
Creator, who is himself not subject to 
human infirmities, such as limited knowl- 
edge and, shortness of life, 2-7. 

2. Do not condemn me — In the 
preceding chapter (verse 20) Job had 
charged Deity with a disposition to as- 
sume that he was guilty, and to con- 
demn him unheard. He now prays 
God — fasten not guilt upon me. 

3. Is it good — 2it3H : Is it becom- 
ing thee f — Thus Dillmann and others. 
The first reason why God should not 
treat men as he does — for instance, in 
the threefold Way disclosed in this 
verse : 1. Oppression in general ; 2. The 
oppression of the just, "the work of 
his hands ;" 3. The showing of favour to 
the wicked — is, that such a course does 
not comport with the nature of God. 

4. Eyes of flesh — A second reason is, 
that God is not limited by human facul- 
ties. He sees not through the external 
sense but by intuition. He has not to 
reason, as man does, from what ap- 
pears. His sight is thwarted by no 
dimming veil of sense, but He at once 
comprehends the heart. 

5. As man's days — The third rea- 
son Job gives is, that God's years are 
not limited like the days of men. There 
is, therefore, no danger that man should 
outlive Deity, and thus escape his just 
deserts. Consequently hurried judg- 
ment is unworthy an eternal God. 

6. Thou inquirest — The idea of 
Ewald, that Job conceives of God as 
some mighty monarch who, like those 
on earth, puts the unhappy one to the 
rack that he may constrain a confes- 
sion, is not justified by the text. The 
real idea is not so high-coloured. Job 



thy years as man's days, 6 That thou 
inquirest after mine iniquity, and search- 
est after my sin ? 7 3 d Thou knowest 
that I am not wicked ; and there is none 
that can deliver out of thine hand. 
8 e Thine hands 4 have made me and 
fashioned me together round about ; yet 
thou dost destroy me. 9 Eemember, 
I beseech thee, that f thou hast made 
me as the clay ; and wilt thou bring me 



d Psa. 139. 1, 2- 
took pains about 
Isa. 64. 8. 



i. 119. 73. — 
-/Gen. 2. 7 



4 Heb. 
3. 19; 



means, if there be insufficient time to 
leave sin to its own development, then 
God is right in making such hasty in- 
quisition after man's iniquity; other- 
wise there is no' need of seeking occa- 
sion against him and slaying him before 
his time. 

7 . Thou knowest — Literally, upon 
(that is, notwithstanding) thy knowledge. 
Read, although thou knowest. I am not 
wicked — Job had before confessed 
himself a sinner. He must mean here, 
either some specific heinous sin, or the 
more gross overt life, such as marks 
those technically called the wicked. 

b. Such hostile procedure of God to- 
ward Job is in contradiction to the blend- 
ed love and wisdom displayed in the cre- 
ation of man, seeing that God ruthlessly 
destroys what he has lovingly and artis- 
tically formed, 8-12. 

8. Made me — 2^y, 'hatsab, primary 

sense, cut or carve. Hence to elabo- 
rate with toil or care. The psalmist 
(cxxxix, 15) likens the work of God tip- 
on our frame to embroidery, curiously 
wrought. Bpictetus, the Stoic, saw in 
the human body " the symbols of God." 
— the clear marks of a divinity work- 
ing most wisely and most powerfully. 

9. As the clay — A. favourite figure 
of the Scripture, chap, xxxiii, 6 ; isa. 
xxix, 1 6 ; xlv, 9 ; Jer. xviii, 6 ; Rom. ix, 
20, 21. The idea of destroying him 
naturally calls to the mind of Job the case 
of a potter, who, after skilfully elabora- 
ting some work of beauty, prizes it too 
highly to dash it wantonlv to the earth. 
The mystery of death evidently presses 
upon his mind. God has made him out 
of clay — a masterpiece of skill, wis- 
dom, and power — why should he bring 
him into dust again ? Job recalls the 



88 



JOB. 



into dust again? 10 g Hast thou not 

Iioured me out as milk, and curdled me 
ike cheese ? 1 1 Thou hast clothed me 
with skin and flesh, and hast 5 fenced me 
with bones and sinews. 12 h Thou hast 



pPsa. 139. 14, 15, 16. 5 Hebrew, hedged. 



sentence against Adam, and uses sub- 
stantially the same words — "Unto dust 
shalt thou return." Gen. iii, 19. 

10. (Compare Psa. cxxxix, 15. Ko- 
ran, Sur. lxxxvi, 5.) In the organiza- 
tion of the body from its rude primor- 
dia, the liquid elements assume a more 
solid consistency, like milk curdling 
into cheese. (Fausset.) " The develop- 
ment of the embryo was regarded by 
the Israelitish Hhokmah as one of the 
greatest mysteries." — Delitzsch. See 
Eccles. xi, 5; 2 Mace, vii, 22. 

11. Fenced me — Interwoven me. 
Just as we speak of muscular tissues, 
or the texture (texere, to weave) of a 
physical organ. The Scriptures as- 
cribe the origin of each individual to 
the creative work of God, as much so 
as the existence of Adam. " The order 
of creative growth is here from soft to 
hard," says Grotius. " The Jews hold 
that a contrary order is to be observed 
in the resurrection." 

1 2. Granted me life — Science 
knows as little about the nature of life 
as about its origin. Job calls it God's 
gift. Atheistic philosophy conceives 
itself competent to dispense with the 
Infinite Fount of being, but stumbles 
at the very threshold of ordinary exist- 
ence. Herbert Spencer accounts for 
organisms on the ground that " they 
are highly differentiated portions of the 
matter forming the earth's crust and 
its gaseous envelope," which is quite 
equivalent to accounting for the green- 
ness of vegetation by its viridity. Cited 
in Beale, Life Theories. Thy visita- 
tion — Providence, (Gesenius.) 

Second section, double strophe — A 

LIFE OF MISERY, SPRINGING FROM GOD'S 
LEONINE HOSTILITY TO MAN, THOUGH DI- 
VINELY PLANNED, IS LESS DESIRABLE 
THAN THE MISERABLE ESTATE OF THE 
DEAD, 13-22. 

a. The relentless assaults of God on 
man without respect to the life he may 
lead, betray a hidden purpose or plan in- 



granted me life and favour, and thy visi- 
tation hath preserved my spirit. 

13 And these things hast thou hid in 
thine heart : I know that this is with thee. 
14 If I sin, then ' thou markest me, and 



-Gen. 19. 19; Acts. 17.25. 



Psa. 139. 1. 



explicably discordant with all creative 
evidences of goodness, 13-17. 

13. And — But. A glance at the 
ruin and misery wrought by his loath- 
some disease (verse 15) causes Job an- 
other painful revulsion, startles him out 
of his pleasant revery over God's watch- 
ful care in the past, and drags him again 
to the brink of despair. With thee — 
That is, in thy mind. There is no refer- 
ence in this verse to " the decrees " of 
the Almighty, as some suppose. This 
would not harmonize with the context. 
" In the present ill treatment of his 
creature Job believes that he sees the 
secret plan of God formed at his crea- 
tion, which he now unfolds to him in 
detail." — Hirtzel and Dillman. He who 
conceived a plan of cosmical creation, 
and gradually developed it during vast 
periods of time; who stamped upon the 
brute creation a prototype pointing 
forward to man, who in his physical 
make is the culmination of all verte- 
brates ; who constructed the taber- 
nacle according to a pattern first 
li showed to Moses in the mount," 
(Heb. viii, 5,) — has launched no human 
being into existence without a plan for 
his life ; and all the discipline of life is 
intended to develop and perfect this 
divine design. That plan may be 
thwarted or sadly distorted by the ac- 
tions of the free agent, as the blossom 
or unripened fruit may be cast to the 
ground by the untimely blast, but the 
purpose stands no less true. 

14. If I (should) sin — The purpose 
Job thinks he has discovered, the Al- 
mighty carries into execution, what- 
ever may be man's moral character. 
He supposes four conditions of life : 
first, that of the ordinary sinner, (verse 
14;) second, that of the gross and will- 
ful transgressor, (15 a ;) third, that of 
the righteous, such as Job cl.-iimed to be, 
(15 b ;) fourth, that of those conscious- 
ly proud of guiltlessness, (Pharisaical 
righteousness,) as seems implied in "the 



CHAPTER X. 



89 



thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniqui- 
ty. 15 If I be wicked, "woe unto me ; 'and 
if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up 
my head." lam full of confusion; there- 
fore m see thou mine affliction ; 16 For 
it increaseth. " Thou huntest me as a 
fierce lion : and again thou showest thy- 
self marvellous upon me. 17 Thou 
renewest 6 thy witnesses against me, 



and increasest thine indignation upon 
me ; changes and war are against me. 
18 ° Wherefore then hast thou brought 
me forth out of the womb ? O that I 
had given up the ghost, and no eye had 
seen me ! 19 I should have been as 
though I had not been; I should have 
been carried from the womb to the grave. 
20 p Are not my days few ? q cease then^ 



fclsa. 3. 11. /Chap. 9. 12, 15, 20, 21. wiPsa. 

25. 18. /ilsa. 38. 13; Lam. 3. 10. 6 That is, 



head lift itself up." Verse 16. The two 
suppositions of irreligious life are offset 
to the two of religious life, and make 
what Ewald truly calls "a horrible te- 
tralemrna" — a cruel fourfold net. 

15. I am full of confusion, etc. — 
It may also be rendered, being filled 
with shame and the sight of my misery. 

16. For it increaseth, etc. — And 
(if) it (the head) lift itself up, thou hunt- 
est me like the lion, (shalihal,) see note, 
iv, 10. This image is of frequent oc- 
currence. (Isa. xxxi, 4 ; xxxviii, 13 ; 
Hos. v, 14; xiii, 7.) " Good and Booth- 
royd seem rightly to consider that the 
fine passage in this and the follow- 
ing verse refers to the sport which 
lions, and, indeed, all the feline tribe, 
exercise over their prey before they 
finally devour it." — Dr. Kitto, Pict. 
Bible. This painful feature of instinct 
is relieved by the consideration that 
the senses of the victim are probably 
to a good extent paralyzed. Such was 
the experience of Dr. Livingstone when 
once in the jaws of a lion. (Travels in 
South Africa, p. 12.) The figure is one 
of unspeakable terror, but not necessi- 
tated by the text, though the Speaker 's 
Commentary seems to adopt it. Mar- 
vellous upon me — " Mighty against 
me." (Fiirst.) The crude form of the 
verb is the same as Isa. ix, 6, trans- 
lated wonderful. God adapts his afflic- 
tions to the heart. He shows as mar- 
vellous wisdom in the various visita- 
tions he makes to the souls of men as 
he does in the works of creation. 

17. Thy witnesses — The verbal 
form of the word in the Arabic also sig- 
nifies attack, which may have led to the 
marginal reading, " plagues." Job here 
means "afflictions," " sorrows," tokens 
of divine displeasure. Contemplated 
aright they are, for the good man, wit- 



thy plagues, Ruth 1. 21. o Chap. 3. 11. 

p Chap. 7. 6, 16; 8. 9; Psa. 39. 5. tfPsa. 39. 13. 



nesses of heavenly love. Changes and 
war— Literally, Exchanges and an army. 
He means the re-enforcements of an 
army— host succeeding host. The singular 

form of the word niDvPl (exchanges) 

reappears in chap, xiv, 14, for the relief 
of a sentry. As sentries are relieved 
in an army, so one host succeeds anoth- 
er against me. In chap, xix, 12, he 
compares himself to a fortress which 
God besieges. 

b. Lost in the perplexities of existence, 
the sole favour he has to ask is a little res- 
pite (for reflection) before he descends 
to the land of deepest darkness, 18-22. 

18. O that I had given up the 
ghost — Rather, / should have died. 
"If the flesh should murmur and cry 
out, as Christ even cried out and was 
feeble," (says Luther, in one of his con- 
solatory letters,) " the spirit neverthe- 
less is ready and willing, and, with 
sighings that cannot be uttered, will 
cry, Abba, Father, is it thou ? thy rod 
is hard, but thou still art Father; I 
know that of a truth." — Delitzsch. 
In sad contrast with this, and in har- 
mony with Job, is the language of 
Artabanus, the Persian : " Short as our 
time is, there is no man, whether it be 
here among this multitude or else- 
where, who is so happy as not to have 
felt the wish — I will not say once, but 
full many a time — that he were dead, 
rather than alive." — Herodotus, vii, 46. 

19. Have ... carried — ^21 X, borne 

T 

with solemn funereal pomp, same as in 
xxi, 32. A word of honour strangely 
accorded to nascent humanity, unless 
it be because of its immortal life. 
" Here the example of Job teaches us 
that great and holy men fall easily and 
sin terribly if God, our Lord, begin a 



90 



JOB. 



and r let me alone, that I may take com- 
fort a little, 21 Before I go whence I 
shall not return, s even to the land of 
darkness ' and the shadow of death ; 



r Chap. 7. 16, 19. 



little to withdraw his hand from them." 
— H Welter. 

20. Take comfort — Same as ix, 27. 
Cease— Let him cease. "Job at the 
end of his complaint, not venturing to 
speak to God, but of him, in the third 
person." — Schlottmann. 

21. Whence I shall not return— 

The undiscovered country, from whose bourne 
No traveller returns. — Hamlrt, iii, 1. 

22. Darkness itself— Ophel. Dark- 
ness particularly thick. (Furst.) The 
spectacle that the interior of the dark 
and gloomy sepulchre presented, evi- 
dently tinged Job's views of the state 
of the dead. The vivid imagination of 
the Arab, notwithstanding the teach- 
ing of the Koran, still sees in the tomb 
the real, conscious home of the dead. 
"I have read some poems of the 
Arabians in which they are repre- 
sented as visiting the graves of their 
friends like dwelling places, convers- 
ing w r ith them, and watching the dust 
of their dwellings. . . . The dead were 
held so dear that one could not, must 
not, think of them as dead, even in the 
grave, and thus they were represented 
there as still having an animate, though 
shadowy, existence." — Herder. (See 
further, Hebrew Poetry, i, 173.) With- 
out any order — "Where all is con- 
fused, like unto a chaos." — Gesenius, 
Thesaurus. The light is as darkness 
— It shines as thick darkness. Such 
darkness reigns there that their broad 
daylight is as dark as midnight on 
earth. (Hirtzel.) Thus Milton : — 

Yet from those flames 
No light, hut rather darkness visible. 

Dr. Clarke cites Sophocles: "Thou, 
darkness, be my light." This " bold and 
tremendous " description of the under- 
world of the dead is not surpassed in 
any language, and forcibly recalls the 
conclusion to a similar, but vastly in- 
ferior, one by Seneca : — 
Ipsaque morte pejor est mortis locus, etc., 
And death's abode is worse than death itself. 
— Hercules Fur ens. 



22 A land of darkness, as darkness it- 
self; and of the shadow of death, with- 
out any order, and where the light is as 
darkness. 



Psa. 



Psa. 23. 4. 



The description Job gives of the un- 
derworld bears some points of resem- 
blance to that recovered from the As- 
syrian tablets, supposed to have been 
made at least twenty centuries before 
Christ. It appears in the account of 
the descent of the goddess Ishtar to 
the infernal regions. To " the house of 
the departed, the seat of the god Iskal- 
la; to the house from within which 
there is no exit ; to the road the course 
of which never returns ; to the place 
within which they long for light ; the 
place where dust is their nourishment, 
and their food mud; light is never 
seen, in the darkness they dwell ; its 
chiefs, also, like birds, are clothed with 
wings ; over the door and its bolts is 
scattered dust." — George Smith, As- 
syrian Discov.,]). 220. 

EXCURSUS IV-THE DAYSMAN. 

In the judicial language of the Mid- 
dle Ages, the word day was specially 
applied to the day appointed for hear- 
ing a cause. ("Wedgwood.) Hence our 
English word daysman denoted the 
judge who presided at the day fixed, 
for he was the man of the day. No 
better word could have been selected 
to express the faith of our translators, 
that this daysman is Christ, who will 
judge the world on the day which God 
hath appointed. Acts xvii, 31. 

The word ITDiD, mokiahh, daysman, 

which Furst renders "mediator/' 
" umpire," is used in the Hiphil form 
with the idea of judging or decid- 
ing between two parties. The Septu- 
agint version gives as the equivalent 
of mokiahh, fieairnc tjhuv, the same 
term (mesites) that is employed by the 
apostle (Galatians iii, 19, 20, 1 Timothy 
ii, 5, and Hebrews viii, 6) for Medi- 
ator. The Septuagint also adds, "and 
a reprover, and one who should hear 
(through) in the midst of both," 6ta- 
kovov avajjEoov. etc. Many manu- 
scripts. (Dr. Clarke speaks of fifteen,) 



CHAPTER X. 



91 



and the ancient versions, the Septua- 
gint, Arabic, and Syriac, . read }?, lou, 
u v>ould that" in place of i&, lo, "not;" 
thus, " Would that there were a days- 
man," etc. This passage has given 
rise to extreme views. On the one 
side is that of the Fathers : thus St. 
Gregory — " The holy patriarch Job, 
contemplating the sins of man and the 
wrath of God against sin, prays for a 
mediator who is both God and man. 
He beholds him from afar, and longs 
for a redeemer who may lay his hands 
on both." St. Augustine (Psa. cih) 
also writes: "Job desired to see Christ; 
he desired a mediator. What is a 
mediator? One who stands in the 
midst in order to adjust a cause. Were 
we not the enemies of God, and had 
we not a bad cause toward God ? Who 
could put an end to that bad cause 
but He (medius arbiter) concerning 
whom the apostle says," etc., 1 Tim. 
ii, 5. At the other extreme is the view 
of the Rationalists, thus expressed by 
Dr. Noyes : " An arbiter who may 
have authority to control either of us 
who shall exceed the limits of propri- 
ety in the controversy, and also oblige 
us to stand to Ins decision." Jo$ had 
been but just before (verse 31) treat- 
ing of moral defilement that had 
stained the soul beyond all human 
power of removal. Such was this de- 
filement that even after man's utmost 
cleansing of himself, his own unclean 
garments would abhor contact with so 
filthy a being. Though there be the 
intervention of a verse, (32,) yet such a 
degrading transition as would be im- 
plied in the rationalistic interpretation 
of this verse is unworthy of Job. It 
means a descent from the profound- 
est and most momentous question that 
can conceivably engage the mind of 
man, to the platitude of a super-divine 
umpire, (pedagogue,) whose duty it 
should be to hold in restraint two quar- 
relsome disputants, God and man. Its 
absurdity is stamped upon its face. 

Nor are we inclined with the Fa- 
thers to attribute to Job too great a 
knowledge of divine truth. His moral 
needs unquestionably led him to think 
of and desire superhuman help — the 
intervention of some being who should 



assist in the adjudication of the cause 
at issue between man and God. He 
sighed for some one to stand between, 
and not as the Rationalists say, above, 
both. With Job the real knowledge 
of a mediator was more of the heart 
than of the head — more a feeling than 
a mental conception. The heart's 
wants belong to the race, and to every 
age; clear perception of truth to but 
few. In the fulness of time, meridian 
knowledge of a mediator should come 
with the mediator himself. "Job, out of 
his religious entanglement, proclaimed 
the necessity of a mediator to human- 
ize God two thousand years before 
he came." — Davidson. An exceeding- 
ly ancient custom of the Arabs certain- 
ly favours the evangelical view. " The 
Arabs," says Herodotus, (hi, 8,) "plight 
faith with the forms following. When 
two men would .swear a friendship, 
they stnnd on each side of a third ; he, 
with a sharp stone, makes a cut on 
the inside of the hand of each, near 
the middle finger, and taking a piece 
from their dress, dips it in the blood 
of each, and moistens therewith seven 
stones lying in the midst, calling the 
while on Bacchus and Urania. After 
this the man who makes the pledge 
commends the stranger (or the citi- 
zen, if citizen he be) to ah his friends, 
and they deem themselves bound to 
stand to the engagement." A like cus- 
tom is perpetuated to the present day 
among the Arabs. "When any one 
commits an offence against another 
individual," says Sir J. G. Wilkinson, 
(ibid.,) " he endeavors to find a mediator 
to intercede in his behalf, and the tent 
of that person becomes an asylum (like 
the refuge city of the Jews, Num. 
xxxv, 1 1) until the compact has been 
settled." Some such Semitic custom 
of mediation Job probably had in 
mind. The old Accadian faith, as we 
now learn from Assyrian tablets, em- 
braced an idea of divine mediation for 
the benefit of men. The primitive Ac- 
cad (see note on i, 17) worshipped a 
God, (Silik-moulou khi.) " him who 
orders what is good for man," the 
eldest son of Hea, through whom the 
will of his father, Hea, was communi- 
cated to men ; " him, the command of 



92 



JOB. 



T CHAPTER XI. 

HEN answered Zophar the Naaraa- 

whose mouth is propitious, the sub- 
lime judge of heaven." The early 
Accadian hymns recognise the great 
power he had with his father, Hea, in 
averting evils from men. — Lenormant, 
la Magie, 346, 7. See further," Speak- 
er's Com., vol. vi, p. 266, Excursus on 
Chaldee Magic. 

In the presence of such light from 
the not far distant land of Chaldea, into 
contact with which our history brings 
us closely, (chap, i, 17,) we are not to 
suppose an inadvertent use of words 
on the part of Job when he speaks of 
" a daysman ; " but rather, that he may 
have possessed at least as enlightened 
views as those of the Chaldeans, from 
whose land it will be remembered Abra- 
ham had early migrated. But of Abra- 
ham. Christ says he "rejoiced to see my 
day: and he saw it, and was glad." 
John viii, 56. This anticipatory knowl- 
edge of Christ may have been vouch- 
safed to him before he left Ur of the 
Chaldees, (Gen. xi, 31,) and have been 
communicated by him to his Chaldse- 
an countrymen, and preserved in tra- 
dition, which, after the lapse of so 
many centuries, has been marvellous- 
ly brought to light. The most ancient 
false religions were burdened with the 
momentous problem of Job — How shall 
the evil of sin be compounded, and man 
made pure ? On a point of so much in- 
terest we adduce a few illustrations: 
" What shall I do," cried Zoroaster, 
" Ormazd, steeped in brightness, in 
order to battle with Daroodj-Ahriman, 
father of the evil law, how shall I 
make men pure and holy ? " Ormazd 
answered and said, " Invoke, Zoro- 
aster, the pure law of the servants of 
Ormazd; . . .invoke my spirit, me, who 
am Ahura-Mazda, the purest, strongest, 
wisest, best of beings ; me, who have 
the most majestic body ; who, through 
purity, am supreme, whose soul is the ex- 
cellent word, and ye, all people, invoke 
me as I have commanded Zoroaster." — 
Kleuker's Avesta Vtndldad Farg., 19. 
See Hardwick, ibid., ii, pp. 392-395. 

The later literature of the Brahman 
frequently intimates that deliverance 



thitej and said, 3 Should not the 
multitude of words be answered? and 

is secured by a son. Of such a one 
the Rig Yeda, (vii, 56, 24,) trans- 
lated by Max Muller, early speaks : " 0, 
Maruts, may there be to us a strong 
son, who is a living ruler of men, 
through whom we may cross the wa- 
ters on our way to the happy abode; 
then may we come to your own house." 
Buddha himself confessed his own age 
to be irremediably corrupt, and proph- 
esied of a Buddha to be called Mait- 
reya, the loving, the merciful, who will 
cause justice to reign over the earth. 
See further, on Buddha, Bunsen, God in 
History, i, 371. "For we ought," says 
Plato, describing the last scenes in the 
life of Socrates, " with respect to these 
things, either to learn from others how 
they stand, or to discover them for 
one's self ; or, if both these are impos- 
sible, then, taking the best of human 
reasonings, and that which is most dif- 
ficult to be refuted, and embarking on 
this as one who risks himself on a raft, 
so to sail through life, unless one could 
be carried more safely, and with less risk, 
on a surer conveyance, or some divine 
REASON (loyov Oelov rivoc). — Phcedo, 
section 78. See also Socrates, in Plato, 
Second Alcibiades, section 23. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Zophar's First Address. 
1. Then answered Zophar— Eli- 
phaz had modestly confirmed his views 
by an appeal to the revelation of a 
spirit ; Bildad, by recourse to the wis- 
dom of the ancients ; Zophar, the 
youngest of the three, relies upon him- 
self. "At first," says Jahn, "his dis- 
course is characterized by rusticity; 
his second address adds but little to 
the first ; and in the third dialogue he 
has no reply to make." The other two 
friends had looked upon Job's suffer- 
ings as the chastenings of God, rather 
than punishments. Zophar, on the 
other hand, regards them as solely pu- 
nitive. The address opens with painful 
vituperation, but proceeds in noble 
language to describe the infinite wis- 
dom of G-od — a wisdom that compre- 
hends and arraigns the human heart. 



CHAPTER XL 



93 



should 1 a man full of talk be justified ? 
3 Should thy 2 lies make men hold their 
peace? and when thou mockest, shall 
no man make thee ashamed ? 4 For 
a thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and 
I am clean in thine eyes. 5 But b oh 
that God would speak, and open his lips 

1 Heb. a man of lips. 2 Or, devices. 

"Chap. 6. 10; 10. 7. 



In contrast man at best is, as Zophar 
says, but hollow- headed and perverse 
from his birth. "With beautiful imag- 
ery he portrays the happiness and se- 
curity of the just, and concludes, like 
Bildad, with the doom of the wicked. 
First division, double strophe — The 

APPEARANCE OF GOD WOULD MAKE 
KNOWN THE TRUTH THAT JOB HAD BEEN 
TREATED MUCH MORE MILDLY THAN HE 
DESERVED, 2-6. 

a. Job's false and boastful assumption 
of innocence, 2-4. 

2. A man full of talk — Literally, a 
man of lips. A sneer at Job for loqua- 
ciousness, or an insinuation, perhaps, 
that he is insincere, a man of lips rath- 
er than of heart. Theocritus called an 
oration of Anaximenes a river of words 
with a drop of sense. 

3. Thy lies — The Hebrew also means 
babblings, boastings. " To say or to 
suggest that a man lies, is, with us, 
enough to kindle the weakest spirit, 
and is, with many, a murderous affront, 
while an Oriental will listen to the 
coarsest imputations of falsehood with 
an undisturbed countenance." — Kitto, 
D. B. Illus. The present stage of the 
debate would hardly justify so offen- 
sive a word as that of the Authorized 
Version, lies. Zophar has in view such 
expressions as ix, 21, 35 ; x, 7. 

4. Doctrine is pure— Not that he had 
used just such an expression, but this 
was the quintessence of Job's speech. 

b. Would that God might appear, even 
as Job desired, for then the divine insight 
would disclose Job's deep guilt, and the 
many transgressions which still remained 
unpunished. The danger to Job lies not 
in God's almightiness, as he claims, but 
in the deeps of God's manifold knowl- 
edge, 5-6. 

6. The secrets of wisdom — Prof. 
Lee devotes several pages to showing 
that the wisdom referred to is Christ, 



against thee ; G And that he would 
show thee the secrets of wisdom, that 
th,ey arc double to that which is ! Know 
therefore that c God exacteth of thee less 
than thine iniquity dese?'vet7i. 

7 d Canst thou by searching find out 
God ? canst thou find out the Almighty 



b Chap. 23. 7 ; 31. 35 ; 33. 6, 18. c Ezra 9. 13. 

dEccles. 3. 11 ; Rom. 11. 33. 



who is called the wisdom of God. This 
is one of the. many instances which 
commentators upon this book furnish 
of forced spiritual interpretations. 
Double to that which is — Michaelis 
and Dillmann render it, " double to 
(man's) wisdom," that is, God's wisdom 
vastly exceeds ours: (Gesenius, p. 704:) 
others, " because there are complica- 
tions of his wisdom ;" that is, it is com- 
plicated, occult, inexplicable, and at the 
same time varied and infinite. Zockler's 
reading is preferable " that it (wisdom) 

is twofold in Wue knowledge." DvS3 is 

dual in form, but used absolutely for 
manifold— fold upon fold! Compared 
with God's all human wisdom is vain, 
because one-sided. For the rendering 
of the difficult word toushiyyah, true 
knowledge, see chap, v, 12 and xii, 16. 
God exacteth of thee, etc. — Literally, 
God brings into forgetfulness to thee a 
part of thy fault; (Fiirst, Dillmann;) 
God remits to thee of thy guilt. This is 
evident from the smallness of Job's 
sufferings compared with his deserts. 
God is as infinite in mercy as he is in 
knowledge. "He forgives more than 
he punishes." (Comp. Psa. ciii, 10.) 
The truth is a precious one, but as ap- 
plied to Job it was offensive. 
Second division, double strophe— The 

PERFECTION OF DIVINE WISDOM NECESSI- 
TATES AN IMMEDIATE AND COMPLETE 
KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEART, 7-12. 

a. God's wisdom is unsearchable — 
heaven, hell, earth, and sea may be meas- 
ured, but this divine wisdom knovjs no 
limits, 7-9. 

7. By searching find out God — 
Fiirst, Zockler in Lange, etc., read, 
(i Canst thou reach the deep things 
(depths) in God;" but Umbreir, Hit- 
zig, (die Forschung Gottes erreichen,) 
Hengstenberg, etc., read substantially 
as in the A. V. The former interpret 



94 



JOB. 



unto perfection? 8 It is 3 as high as 
heaven ; what canst thou do ? deeper 
than hell ; what canst thou know ? 



8 Heb. the heights of heaven. e Chap. 9. 12 ; 



Ipnn, the depths of God. Compare 

1 Cor. ii, 10, Tafiddrj, the depths of GTod. 
The latter translate it, the searching of 
God, (Eloah,) either of which meanings 
the word will bear. The most satisfac- 
tory reading of the text is that of De- 
litzsch, Canst thou find out the nature of 
God — "The hidden ground of God," 
(Ewald,) a reading favoured by the 
Hebraic order of the words. To attrib- 
ute to hhelcer the idea of search sa- 
vours too much of tautology. 

Simonides, asked by Hiero what 
God is, desired a day to deliberate. 
"When questioned the next day, he 
asked for two more ; and after this 
doubled the days, until Hiero, wonder- 
ing, again asked for his answer, when 
he replied, The longer I consider, the 
more obscure the subject appears to 
me. And Cicero declares, if asked 
the same question, be should follow 
the example of Simonides. — Be Nat., 
i, sec. 22. (Compare Rom. i, 19, 20. 
Meth. Quar. Rev., 1869, p. 173, and In 
Memoriam, sec. cxxiii.) Almighty un- 
to perfection — Thus Conant, justi- 
fied by the parallelism and the ac- 
centuation. Others interpret it, " Pene- 
trate to the uttermost parts in the Al- 
mighty," (Dillmann and Zockler,) a 
harsh reading; "canst thou arrive at 
the limit of God, "(Wordsworth ;) " canst 
thou reach the perfection of the Al- 
mighty," (Davidson andHitzig,) both of 
which are questionable. (See a sermon 
by Archbishop Tillotson on " The In- 
comprehensibleness of God.") 

8. High as heaven — Literally, the 
heights of heaven! The wisdom of God 
towers above the heavens ; penetrates 
beneath the depths of sheol, (the under- 
world;) in length and breadth it sur- 
passes earth and ocean. The apostle 
in like manner describes the perfection 
of love by giving the four dimensions 
" breadth, length, depth, and height," 
(Eph. iii, 18,) the dimensions of a cube, 
which in the apocalypse stands as the 
symbol of perfection; Rev. xxi, 16. 



9 The measure thereof is longer than 
the earth, and broader than the sea. 

10 e If he 4 cut off, and shut up, or gather 



12. 14 ; Revelation 3. 7. — -4 Or, make a change. 



" The Pythagoreans represent the di- 
vine nature and every kind of perfec- 
tion and completeness by a square." — 
Heyne. The Fathers saw in this de- 
scription of wisdom the similitude of 
the cross. Their idea J. F. Meyer thus 
reproduces : "Its head uplifts itself to 
the throne of God, and its root reaches 
down to hell. Its arms stretch from 
the rising of the sun to the going down 
of the same, and from pole to pole. In 
it heaven and earth are united, in it 
appeased." 

9. Longer than the earth— Firdusi, 
Persia's epic poet, exclaims : " The 
height and the depth of the whole world 
have their centre in thee, my God ! I 
do not know thee, what thou art ; but I 
know that thou art what thou alone 
canst be." 

b. If consequently such divine vjisdom 
suddenly arrest and irresistibly drag a 
sinner io judgment, even a witless man 
must become wise, and though refractory, 
as the foal of an ass, learn subjection 
and restraint, 10-12. 

Job had dwelt on the irresistible 
power of God ; Zophar now assails him 
with both the wisdom and might of God, 
and whips him with his own words. 

10. If he cut off, etc. — If he pass 
by, and arrest and call to judgment, who 
vrill restrain Him f (Dillmann, Umbreit, 
Delitzsch.) Out off— Pass by. The 
word hhalaph, to glide by, used also of 
the spirit in the vision of Eliphaz, iv, 15, 
expresses the solemn stillness of the 
Divine Spirit as he moves among men, 
arresting this one and that one, and 
calling them to their final account. 
Not only in this word hhalaph, but in 
the whole verse, there is an evident, per- 
haps ironical, reproducing of Job, (ix, 
11, 12,) who is there the assailant of 
God's justice, but now its presumable 
victim. Gather together — ~>T}p, is 

used for the calling together of the peo- 
ple to take part in a trial, and in the 
inflicting of judgment. The ancient 
trials were in public. 



CHAPTER XI. 



95 



together, then 5 who can hinder him ? 
11 For 'heknoweth vain men: heseeth 
wickedness also ; will he not then con- 
sider it? 12 For 6 g vain man would be 



5 Hebrew, who can turn him away ? chap- 
ter 12. : /Tsalm 10. 11, 14; 35. 22; 94. 11. 

6 Hebrew, empty. a Psalm 73. 22; 92.6; Ec- 



11. Will he not then consider it 

— Literally, Even though he does not fix 
his mind upon it. (Gesenius, Hitzel, 
Dillmann.) He hath no need that he 
should consider for a long time, (Aben 
Ezra) He sees wickedness at a glance 
— nay more, it is a necessity of his be- 
ing that he should perceive all wicked- 
ness, whether of the overt act or of the 
most secret subtle thought. Man's 
most hidden deeds and God's knowl- 
edge of them are simultaneous. 

12. For — And or so. The transi- 
tion of thought is, according to Hirt- 
zel, " Over against this infinite knowl- 
edge of God man appears as a born 
fool." Its drift, rather, is to show the 
effect of the divine arraignment upon 
men — meaning Job — who shows him- 
self so ready to refer his case to God. 
This verse contains several ambiguous 
words, and has given rise to a great 
variety of interpretations. Thus Ge- 
senius, Olshausen, and others : " But 
empty man is devoid of understanding, 
and (like) the foal of an ass man is 
born." Others interpret it: "Before an 
empty man will become wise, a wild 
ass would be born a man." (Oehler, 
Delitzsch.) Others yet, (Schultens 
and Dathe:) " Let, then, vain man be 
wise, and the wild ass's colt become a 
man." The rendering of most moderns 
approaches that of our translators, 
though with a modified sense. So 
would a witless man become wise, and a 
wild ass's foal be born a man. In oth- 
er words, were God to summon him 
before his tribunal, the most sense- 
less man must get understanding, and 
the wildest and most stubborn sinner 
(here compared to a wild ass) become 
a man. " We have here," says Heng- 
stenberg, " the first passage of Scrip- 
ture which speaks of a regeneration." 
In the expressions, naboub, " hollow " 
(headed,) and yillabeb, " get wisdom," 
(literally, heart,) there is, as Hitzig 
has remarked, a play on Job's name, 



wise, though man be born like a wild 
ass's colt. 

13 h If thou ' prepare thine heart, and 
k stretch out thine hands toward him ; 



clesiastes 3. 18; Romans 1. 22. h Chapter 

5. 8; 22.21. i\ Samuel 7. 3; Psalm 78. 8. 

Jc Psalm 88. 9 ; 143. 6. 



Hiyob, a personality which Job appre- 
ciates. See note on xii, 3. "The void 
in his head is to be filled up, as it 
were, by a new heart." Vain man — 
31 2 J, hollow-headed. The word is used 

T 

of a pillar. Jer. lii, 21. Wild ass's 
colt — This is evidently a proverbial 
expression, and as such is still used by 
the Arabs, who employ the terms, "an 
ass of the desert," or " wild ass," to 
describe an obstinate, indocile, and con- 
tumacious person. — Kitto, Pictorial Bi- 
ble. "A young wild ass is the wildest 
and roughest of creatures." — Wetzstein. 
Among classic writers Oppian describes 
the ass as " swift, rapid, with strong 
hoofs, and most fleet in his course." 
Thus Confucius : • "The Master said, 
Men all say, ' ¥e are wise ; ' but being 
driven forward and taken in a net, a 
trap, or a pitfall, they know not how 
to escape. Men all say, ' We are wise,' 
but happening to choose the course of 
the mean, they are not able to keep it 
for a round month." — The Doctrine of 
the Mean, section vii. Plato introduces 
the poets as "mentioning man's pre- 
disposition to vice, and saying : 
How vice at once and easily we choose, 
The way so smooth, its dwelling, too, so nigh ! 
Toil before virtue, thus forewilled the gods." 
— Republic, ii, chap. vii. 

Third division, in three strophes : 

AN EXHORTATION" TO REPENTANCE AND 
NEWNESS OP LIFE, 13-20. 

a. Repentance toward God, and the 
putting away of sin, are the conditions of 
spiritual confidence and security, 13-15. 

13. Prepare ... heart — Zophar has 
just spoken (verse 12) of "getting a 
heart," (becoming wise,) but this is not 
to be secured without the putting forth 
of effort. As if the pointed reference 
were not enough, the emphatic thou 
defines whom he meant by the cruel 
taunt of the preceding verse. And 
stretch! . .thine hands — The stretch- 
ing out of the hands toward heaven 
in prayer was a very ancient and ap- 



96 



JOB. 



14 If iniquity be in thine hand, put it 
far away, and* ' let not wickedness dwell 
in thy tabernacles. 15 m For then shalt 
thou lift up thy face without spot ; yea, 
thou shalt be" steadfast, and shalt* not 
fear : 16 Because thou shalt n forget thy 
misery, and remember it as waters that 



I Psa. 101. 3. m See Gen. 4. 5, 6 ; chap. 22. 

Psa. 119. 6 ; 1 John 2. 28 ; 3. 19. 21 ; 4. 17. 
n Isa. 65. 16. 



propriate mode of worship. It sym- 
bolized an earnestness of desire that 
would not be satisfied with folded arms 
or hands, but that stretched them forth 
toward heaven as far as possible, as 
if it would drag a blessing down. Or, 
as Witsius, (on prayer, page 93,) sug- 
gests, it may denote sincerity, the at- 
tribute being that of one who would 
lay open what was hid. Or it may in- 
dicate hope, which relinquishes every 
other object and turns to God. 

14. Tabernacles — The word tent, in 
course of time, was used for dwellings 
of any kind. It is quite certain that 
Job dwelt in the country. See xxix, 7. 

15. Lift up thy face — He refers to 
Job's remark, (x, 15,) " I will not lift 
up my head." Without spot— Dlftft. 

The Septuagint gives the sentence : 
"For thus shall thy countenance shine 
agpin as pure water." In the Arabic 
the word is applied to fever spots and 
marks of cutaneous disease. There is, 
apparently, a cruel allusion to the effects 
of Job's disease upon his countenance. 
Steadfast — The word in the original 
is used of metal that has been melted 
and consolidated. 

b. Then the sorrows of the present 
shall be forgotten in the brightness of fu- 
ture life, 16, 17. 

16. Waters that pass away — He 
probably alluded to Job's figure, (vi, 
15-17.) His grief, now so tumultuous, 
shall subside as completely as the wa- 
ters of the mountain torrents. Of the 
wadies, or beds of sucli torrents, which 
are perfectly dry in the summer, "Wil- 
son, in his Lands of the Bible, enumerates 
eighty-five; while Bitter in his Geogra- 
phy speaks of as many as two hundred. 
Note vi, 16. The figure is strikingly 
appropriate. Affliction is not like the 
river that flows on forever, but is like a 
torrent that rages for a brief winter 



pass away: 17 And thine age 7 ° shall 
be clearer than the noonday ; thou shalt 
shine forth, thou shalt be as the morn- 
ing. 18 And thou shalt be secure, be- 
cause there is hope ; yea, thou shalt dig 
about thee, and p thou shalt . take thy 
rest in safety. 19 Also thou shalt lie 



7Heb. shall arise above the noonday.- 

oPsa. 37. 6; 112. 4; Isa. 58. 8, 10. p Lev. 

5,6; Psa. 3. 5; 4.8; Pro v. 3. 24. 



day, and vanishes with the rising of the 
summer sun. God's love has ordained 
that " the excess of grief makes it soon 
mortal." But we are not to forget the 
law of the human mind, that leads it to 
take pleasure in remembering sorrows 
when they have once gone beyond the 
power of return. The joys of heaven 
will be heightened by the remembrance 
of life's troubles, and the retrospective 
vision will be none the less bright that 
we can still see the rivers through 
which we have passed, (Isa. xliii, 2,) 
though they be but dim lines in the dis- 
tant vista. A few lines in the spectrum 
suffice to tell the make of clouds and 
storms as they still sweep over the sur- 
face of the sun. Thus shall the clouds 
and storms of life appear when once 
we have entered our heavenly home. 

17. Thine age. etc. — Brighter than 

the noonday shall thy life arise. *l?r\, 

life, human life, because it glides so 
swiftly away. (Thus Gesenius, 474.) 
Thou shalt shine forth, etc. — Bather, 
(Thy) darkness shall be as the morning. 
"If there be any dark shade it shall 
be only that of the morning twi- 
light." Though Job's darkness shall 
have been like the inconsolable gloom 
of sheol, with which his speech had 
closed: even this shall be like the 
morning — serene and hopeful. " Job's 
climax in x, 22, was that his daylight 
should be as darkness ; Zophar's prom- 
ise is, that his darkness shall be day- 
light.' ' — Davidson. 

c. Beneath this noontide glory Job 
shall dwell with ever-increasing honour, 
secure against any dark forebodings of 
ill, 18-20. 

18. Dig about thee — -fan, "search 

about," (Ewald, Dillmann, etc.,) to see 
that all is right — an uncalled-for weak- 
ening of the sense Bosenmuller, etc., 



CHAPTER XI. 



97 



down, and none shall make thee afraid ; 
yea, many shall 8 raake suit unto thee. 
20 But Hhe eyes of the wicked shall 
fail, and Uhey shall not escape, and 



8 Hebrew, entreat thy face, Psalm 45. 12. 

q Leviticus 26. 16 ; Deuteronomy 28. 65. 9 He- 



give, it the sense of " being ashamed ; " 
many others retain its ordinary mean- 
ing of dig, (iii, 21 ;) for instance, "the 
fields," (Fiirst,) or, "a well," (Dr. A. 
Clarke.) Our translators had the true 
sense of digging for protection. Thus 
Hengstenberg. 

19. Lie down — The image is Ori- 
ental, and is derived from flocks or 
herds in a state of repose. (Psa. xxiii, 2.) 
Make suit unto thee — Literally, stroke 
tliy face, that is, caress thee ; (Prov. 
xix, 6;) hence, to entreat the favour of 
one. It is commonly used of the wor- 
ship of God, and besides, only of the re- 
spect paid to men high in position. 

20. They shall not escape — Ref- 
uge vanishes from them. Like " the flee- 
ing shores of Italy," it is in sight, but 
never reached. The giving up of the 
ghost — Or, The breathing forth of life. 
The downfall of the wicked is beyond 
recovery. Zophar seems to advert to 
Job's ardent desire tor death, (vi, 9 ;) 
as if he would say, thus the wicked die; 
and thus, without repentance, Job will 
die. The sting of the scorpion was in 
the tail, Rev. ix, 10; the last words of 
this address are tipped with a sting ; 
its climax of bitterness is now reached. 
" Eliphaz barely appended a slight 
warning ; Bildad briefly blends it with 
his promise by way of contrast ; Zophar 
adds a verse which already looks like 
the advanced picket of an army of sim- 
ilar harsh menacers in chaps, xv, xviii, 
xx." — Ewald. 

CHAPTER XII. 
Job's Third Reply, xii-xiv. 

1. Job answered— He scouts the 
pompous pretensions of the ''friends" 
to superior wisdom, which, however, 
he remarks, do not prevent their treat- 
ing misfortune with contempt. A sin- 
gle matter-of-fact utterance, (verse 6,) 
foils all their laboured arguments — a 
fact which they should have learned 
from the most ordinary view of society. 

Vol.V.— 8 



r their hope shall be as 10 the giving up of 
the ghost. 

A CHAPTER XII. 

ND Job answered and said, 2 No 



brew, flight shall perish from them. — r Chap. 
8. 14 ; Proverbs 11. 7. 10 Or, a puff of breath. 



The inferior creation is ready to instruct 
man, if he will but listen, instead of 
pluming himself with the wise saws of 
the ancients, which Job says are nor, to 
be accepted until they have been fully 
tested. Infinite in knowledge and in 
power, God holds all events and results 
in his hands; and his wisdom and might 
are not less mysterious and inexplicable 
in his providence over men than in the 
works of nature. (Chap, xiii.) Con- 
scious of innocence, and assured that he 
will not find justice at the hands of 
men, who, for various reasons, are ever 
ready to pervert the truth, Job takes the 
only course open to him, and formally, 
as in open court, makes his appeal to 
God. He is painfully sensible that 
he takes his life in his hands; and yet, 
such is his faith in God and in truth, that 
he triumphantly declares that if God 
should smite him down he would still 
hold fast to his faith — even in death 
God should be his salvation. Though 
pain, passion, and despair burn within 
him, the flame that lifts itself to sight 
is one of blended faith and hope which 
nothing can extinguish. His appeal 
commences with a bold and unjustifia- 
ble challenge, (23-28,) and ends in a 
heart-rending wail. Chap. xiv. Heir 
of a fleeting existence, which brings 
with it the taint of corruption, Job 
pleads the miserable lot of man as a 
reason for clemency on the part of 
God. For vegetation there is a possi- 
ble renewal of life, but for man there is 
none in this present world, not even till 
the heavens be no more. His one strik- 
ing prayer is, that he may be hidden in 
the grave until the present dark scheme 
shall have ended, and another day have 
dawned, when God shall try the cause 
of Job under an ec >nomy different from 
that which now prevails (verse 15). In 
a scene where even rocks and moun- 
tains waste away, man can cherish but 
little, if any, hope. A gloom rests up- 
on the whole of mortal life, " which is 
O. T. 



JOB. 



doubt but ye are the people, and wis- 
dom shall die with you. 3 But a I have 
1 understanding as well as you; 2 I am 
not inferior to you : yea, 3 who know- 
eth not such things as" these ? 4 b I am 



a Chap. 13. 2. 1 Heb. a heart. 2 Heb. 1 

fall not lower than you. 3 Ueb. with whom 



lighted up as by a lightning flash, only 
by the possibility of another life after 
death." — Dillmann. This, the last and 
greatest address of Job in the first de- 
bate, divides itself according to the 
chapters, the first of which is in two 
sections of about equal length. 

Section 1: Sarcastic commenda- 
tion OF THAT WISDOM WHICH FAILS 
TO RECOGNIZE THE SECURITY OF THE 
WICKED, 2-12. 

a. Piety in straits is an object of de- 
rision; while robbers (such as the Sa- 
beans and Chaldaeans) are at peace, 
2-6. 

2. Wisdom shall die with you — 
The people of the East take great pleas- 
ure in irony, and some of their satir- 
ical sayings are very cutting. "When a 
sage intimates that he has superior 
wisdom, or when he is disposed to 
rally another for his meagre attain- 
ments, he says, "Yes, yes; you are 
the man ! Your wisdom is like the 
sea. . . . "When you die, whither will 
wisdom go ! . . . When gone, alas ! 
what will become of wisdom?" — Rob- 
erts's Oriental Illustrations. Moschus 
thus laments the death of Bion: — 

" Bion. the swain, and all with him, is dead ; 
Song lives no more, the Doric muse is fled." 

3. Understanding — Or, a heart. 
With the ancient Hebrews the heart 
w r as the seat of the understanding, and 
the bowels the seat of the emotions. 
" He also has 'a heart like them ; he is, 
therefore, not 'empty.'" — Delitzsch. 
Job thus courteously replies to Zo- 
phar's savage onslaught. See note on 
xi, 12. Inferior to you — Either in 
argument, or, perhaps, (ironically,) in 
the ability to bring forward proverbs. 
Who knoweth not, etc. — Your wis- 
dom is commonplace. Common sense 
should have taught yo\\ this. 

4. I am one mocked — Literally, A 
mockery to his friend, am I; [1] who 
called upon God and he answered him ; 
a mockery is the just, upright man. An- 



as one mocked of his neighbour, who 
c calleth upon God, and he answereth 
him : the just upright man is laughed 
to scorn. 5 d He that is ready to slip 
with Ms i'eetis as a lamp despised in the 



are not such as these ? b Chap. 16. iO ; 17. 2, 6; 

21. 3; 30. 1. cPsa. 91. 15. d Prov. 14. 2. 



swereth him — As if it were too great 
a thing for Job to say that God had 
heard and answered his prayer, he 
passes from the first to the third per- 
son. What appears to be a solecism, 
is really the humility of true greatness. 
If we truly appreciate the significance 
of prayer we shall not wonder at this ; 
for prayer assumes that the invisible 
God is near to hearken to, and con- 
sciously answer, the cry of mortals. 
Its privilege confers on the mind of 
man the greatest conceivable exercise 
of might — none the less than to move 
the Divine Being to the exertion of 
his power for our good. The secret of 
this lies in the parental affection of God. 
No attainment of greatness raises the 
Father above the touching appeal of 
an infant's cry. "When ye pray, say, 
Our Father ." 

5. A lamp despised — All interpret- 
ers acknowledge the obscurity of this 
verse to be exceedingly great. Schul- 
tens speaks of more than ten different 
opinions. " The words of this text are 
dark," says the quaint Caryl, " and 
there are not a few who make the 
lamp the darkest word in it." Rosen- 
muller and others render it: "A de- 
spised torch, in the thought of one 
happy, is he who is ready to slip 
with his feet." Friends were meant 
for use. When no longer serviceable 
they are thrown away like burned out 
torches. Prosperity thrusts away the 
scaffolding by the help of which the 
edifice was built. Thus these friends 
basked in the light of Job's success — 
but now they treat him as they would 
a useless torch. Such is the way of 
the world in every age — "to give to 
the tottering still another push." — 
Dillmann. But most critics properly 

regard the le of TE& {torch) as a pre- 
fix, and the pidh as meaning misfortune. 
For misfortune (there is) scorn in the 
thought of the secure ; (scorn) ready for 



CHAPTER XTI. 



thought of him that is at ease. 6 e The 
tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they 
that provoke God are secure ; into whose 
hand God bringeth abundantly. 7 But 
' ask now the beasts, and they shall 
teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and 



eChap. 21. 7; Psa. 37. 1, 35; 73. 11,12; 92. 7; 
Jer. 12. 1 ; Mai. 3. 15. -/Chap. 21. 29, 30 ; Pro v. 



those who waver in their steps. In like 
manner Ewald, Conant, Hirtzel, etc. 
In the last clause Dillmann and Furst 
follow Eichhorn in rendering nakhon, 
(ready,) a blow or destruction. 

6. Tabernacles of robbers pros- 
per — Literally, Are at peace. Zophar 
had spoken of the security of the taber- 
nacle where virtue dwelt ; (xi, 14-19 ;) 
Job adduces other matters of fact — vice 
has also its security. In ancient Egypt 
robbing was regarded as a necessity 
of its civilization, and was treated as a 
profession. Those who followed the 
craft "gave in their names to the 
chief of the robbers, and agreed that 
he should be informed of every thing 
that they should thenceforward steal, 
the moment it was in their possession. 
In consequence of this the owner of 
the lost goods always applied by letter 
to the chief for their recovery." — "Wil- 
kinson's Anc. Egyptians, Pop. Acct., 
ii, 2 1 6. Into whose hand God bring- 
eth — Now generally rendered, he v)ho 
brings God in his hand, (Ewald, etc.,) 
that is, who either deities his hand, or, 
as some say, that which is taken into 
the hand. Thus Mezentius says, "Dex- 
tra mihi Deus — My right hand is God." 
— JEneid, x, 773. Habakkuk speaks 
in like manner of the Chaldaean: Liter- 
ally, This its strength is its God, i, 11. 

b. The divine wisdom on which Zophar 
has descanted, the entire brute creation 
m ight have taught him. A nd yet Zophar 
does not know that He who is Lord over 
life and death, lets the wicked live, 7-12. 

7. Ask now the beasts. . .and the 
fowls, etc. — Among the Hindus, if any 
one refuses instruction or will not be 
convinced, he is told to ask the cattle, 
inquire of the birds, and that they will 
give him wisdom. (Roberts.) Some 
imagine that Job appeals to the brute 
creation to show that the most ra- 
pacious are most secure. But others 
more correctly suppose that he resumes 



they shall tell thee : 8 Or speak to the 
earth, and it shall teach thee ; and the 
fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. 

9 Who knoweth not in all these that the 
hand of the Lord hath wrought this ? 

10 s In whose hand is the 4 soul of every 



G. G; Isa. 1. 3; Judges 
Dan. 5. 23 ; Acts 17. 28.- 



. 7. g Num. 16. 22; 

-4 Or, life. 



the thought with which his discourse 
opens (verse 3) — that of the power and 
wisdom of God. In the world's great 
school (he says) anybody might learn 
" these." The Scriptures frequently 
summon the so-called inferior creation 
to instruct man in things pertaining to 
wisdom. ' ' Every creature hath a trum- 
pet in his mouth to proclaim the Deity." 
The world of instinct is one of mystery 
which man cannot fathom. It is with 
us, but separated from us by a great 
gulf which neither man nor brute can 
cross. As respects the interchange of 
thought, the brute world moves around 
us in an orbit of silence, but one that 
none the less reflects its Maker's praise. 
Lord Erskine would never allow ani- 
mals to be called the brute creation ; he 
called them the mute creation. Instinct 
trenches upon reason at so many points, 
in some respects vastly surpassing it, 
that it does not become the monarch 
man to look upon his subjects with 
disdain. In ways we know not of, they 
may proclaim in the ear of the great 
Creator his wisdom, power, and love. 

8. Speak to the earth— That is, to 
" every creeping thing " (Gen. i, 30) 
which is on the earth. The division 
of animate creation is the same and in 
the same order as in Gen. ix, 2. Beasts, 
birds, creeping things, fishes. The 
downward gradation, closing with the 
fish, probably the least intelligent of all, 
admirably chimes in with Job's strain 
of irony. 

9. Lord — Jehovah. This is the only 
place in the poetical part of this book 
(if we except xxviii, 28) where the 
name Jehovah appears. Jehovah, the 
Self-existent, is the source of life to all 
these — " the things seen." Heb. xi, 3. 
Compare Isa. lxvi, 2. This — The to- 
tality of creation, corresponding to, but 
more comprehensive than, " all these ;" 
or better — " the administration of God 
among his creatures." 



100 



JOB. 



living tiling, and the breath of 5 all 
mankind. 11 h Doth not the ear try 
words? and the "mouth taste his meat? 
12 ' With the ancient is wisdom; and 
in length of days understanding. 

1-3 7 k With him is wisdom and 
strength, he hath counsel and under- 
standing. 14 Behold, ' he breaketh 



5 Heb. all flesh of man. h Chap. 34. 3. 

:Heb. palate, chap. 6. 30. ?'Chap. 32. 7. 

That is, With God. k Chap. 9. 4; 36. 5. 



10. The breath of all mankind — 

Literally, the spirit of all the flesh of 
man. The soul (nephesh) is the prin- 
ciple of natural life which man shares 
wdth the inferior creation ; while the 
spirit (rouahh) is that higher endow- 
ment belonging, among animals, exclu- 
sively to man, by which he is allied to 
angels and to God. 

11. And — Even as. Taste his 
meat — Literally, Taste food for itself. 
In the same manner the testimony of 
the ancients is to be put to proof, and 
accepted on no other ground than that 
it should stand the test. 

12. The ancient — Old men. In 
length, etc. — "Length of days is un- 
derstanding." Omit the in. 

Section Second — The Wisdom of 
GOD, subordinated to infinite and ir- 
resistible POWER, INVOLVES THE DI- 
VINE MORAL GOVERNMENT IN AN INEX- 
PLICABLE MAZE, 13-25. 

First double strophe. 13-18. 

a. Admits the wisdom and power of 
God, as illustrated by the divine govern- 
ment in the natural world, 13-15. 

13. Him — God. The rest of this 
chapter is thought by some to be an old 
Idumaean poem, or else a collection of 
maxims handed down from antedilu- 
vian ancestors or sages. (Wemyss.) 
In the original, the first word, wisdom, 
(hhokmah.) is the general and most 
comprehensive word for wisdom; the 
second, strength, (gebourah,) from the 
same root as geber, man, implies the abil- 
ity to carry into execution the behest of 
the will; the third, counsel, ' (hetsah,) 
gives the idea of "strength,'' the "mak- 
.ing firm" — practical wisdom; fourth, 

understanding, (tebounah,) implies the 
intellectual perception, characterized by 
its power of penetrating into, and dis- 
tinguishing between, the true and false. 



down, and it cannot be built again : 
he m shutteth s up a man, and there can 
be no opening. 15 Behold, he n with- 
holdeth the waters, and they dry up : 
also he ° sendeth them out, and they 
overturn the earth. 1 6 p With him is 
strength and wisdom : the deceived and 
the deceiver are his. 17 He leadeth 



J Chap. 11. 10. m Isa. 22.22; Rev. 3. 7. 

Heb. upon. nl Kings 8. 35; 17. 1. oGen. 

. 11, Ac. p Verse 13. 



14. Shutteth up a man — In the 

sense of closing over. This is explained 
by the nature of the prisons among the 
Hebrews, which were subterranean ex- 
cavations, whose mouth was covered 
with a stone. Lam. iii, 53. The Chal- 
dee renders it, " He shuts man up in 
the grave, and it cannot be opened." 

Saint Gregory moralizes upon this 
clause: " Evil deeds build a prison for 
man in the depths of his conscience. 
Habit bars the doors, and blindness of 
understanding darkens the windows. 
Thus God shuts him in. If ever the 
desire arise to break forth from his 
dungeon, he is not able." But all this 
tends to depreciate the grace of the 
gospel, which is powerful to break any 
prison bar that habit or appetite has 
forged. 

15. Is thought by some to refer to the 
deluge. Compare Psa. civ, 29, 30. 

b. For the sake of the argument Job 
acknowledges the divine wisdom and might 
in the moral world ; but at once saddles 
these attributes with calamities that strike 
deceived and deceiver alike ; as much as to 
say. Grand descriptions, such as the friends 
had given of the power and wisdom of God, 
do not explain the dark mysteries of the 
divine government, 16-18. 

16. Strength and wisdom — The 
word translated wisdom (toushiyyah) we 
have had before. Chap, xi, 6. " Its fun- 
damental signification can only be, true 
existence, actual being." — Furst. Dr. 
Adam Clarke remarks, ' ' God is strength, 
or power in essence, and an eternal po- 
tentiality. With him is every excel- 
lence in potentia and in esse. He bar- 
rows nothing ; he derives nothing. As 
he is self -existent, so he is self-suffi- 
cient." The deceived and the de- 
ceiver — "A proverb denoting all 
kinds of sinful men." — Furst. All are 



CHAPTER XII. 



101 



counsellors away spoiled, and q maketh 
the judges fools. 18 He looseth the 
bond of kings, and girdeth their loins 
with a girdle. 19 He leadeth princes 
away spoiled, and ovei'throweth the 
mighty. 20 r He removeth away 9 the 
speech of the trusty, and taketh away 
the understanding of the aged. 21 s He 
poureth contempt upon princes, and 



q 2 Sara. 17. 14, 23; Isa. 29. 14; 1 Cor. 1. 19. 

r Chap. 32. 9 ; Isa. 3. 1-3. 9 Heb. the lip of the 

faithful. sPsa. 107. 40; Dan. 2. 21. 10 Or, 



in His power, though allowed at will to 
disport themselves during the brief day 
of life. The delay of judgment does not 
render judgment less certain. Eccles. 
viii, 11. Bishop Sherlock thinks that 
there is an allusion in this passage to 
the fall of man through the tempter. 

17. Spoiled — Barefoot. Captives 
were often stripped of their covering. 
Isa. xx, 4. Fools — The counsels of 
Ahithophel, {brother of folly,) the coun- 
sellor of Absalom, were "turned into 
foolishness," in answer to the prayer 
of David. 2 Sam. xv, 31. 

18. Bond of kings — The bond or 
fetter with which they bound their 
subjects. Girdeth their loins — Lit- 
erally, Binds a (girdle) fetter upon their 
loins. An instance of like retribution. 
The tyrannical biuder of his subjects 
is himself bound with a captive's cord. 
History is full of instances of such sad 
vicissitudes of fate. With no class of 
society lias fortune been a more "fickle 
goddess" (so called) than with mon- 
archs. The wreck of thrones, on the 
other hand, is an unceasing proclama- 
tion that " God reigns." Lucretius 
(v. 1232) had remarked the instability 
of all human glory, but failed to per- 
ceive in its oft-repeated overthrow the 
providence and power of God: — 

So from his awful shades, some power unseen 
Overthrows all human greatness ! treads to dust 
Rods, ensigns, crowns— the proudest pomps of 

state, 
And laughs at all the mockery of man. 

Second double strophe, 19-25. 

a. This wisdom confounds and over- 
whelms the best as well as the mightiest of 
the earth, 19-21. 

19. Princes — The Hebrew also 
means priests. They who wait on God's 
altars are not exempt from a similar 
doom. In many ancient states priests 



10 weakeneth the strength of the mighty. 
22 'He discovereth deep things out of 
darkness, and bringeth out to light the 
shadow of death. 23 u He increaseth 
the nations, and destroy eth them : he 
enlargeth the nations, and n straiten- 
eth them again. 24 He taketh away 
the heart of the chief of the people of 
the earth, and v causeth them to wander 

looseth the girdle of the strong. 1 Dan.2.22 ; 

Matt. 10. 2(5; 1 Cor. 4. 5. wlsa. 9. 3; 26. 15. 

11 Heb. leadeth in. v Psa. 107. 4, 40. 

were held in esteem quite equal to that 
of the sovereign. Sometimes, as with 
Melchisedek, Jethro, and the Assyrians, 
the two characters of priest and prince 
were blended together in the same 
person. The mighty — Those firmly 
established. 

21. Weakeneth the strength, etc. 
— Literally, Looseth the girdle of the 
strong ; a proverbial phrase, says Um- 
breit, ' for destroying their power, that 
is, in the eyes of the people." The gar- 
ments of the Orientals were long and 
flowing, and were consequently in the 
way when active service was demanded. 
The girdle served to bind them up ; and 
hence, to unloose the girdle typified in- 
action or effeminacy. God promised 
to unloose the loins of kings before Cy- 
rus. (Isa. xlv, 1,) that is, to render them 
unlit for material resistance. 

b. The same wisdom on the one side 
brings " the hidden things of darkness, 11 
(1 Cor. iv, 5,) all the dark plans of 
wickedness, into light; and on the otter, 
plunges nations, together with their mag- 
nates, into the darkness of calamity and 
hopeless bewilderment, 22-25. 

22. Darkness. . .the shadow of 
death — Though the shadow of death 
be spread over the evil deeds of men 
God shall bring them to light. 

23. Straiteneth them — Leadeth 
them away (into captivity). Compare 
2 Kings xviii, 11. 

24. The heart — The same word, and 
perhaps the same allusion, as in verse 3. 
The first clause of the 21st verse, and 
the last clause of this, are literally re- 
produced in Psa. cvii, 40. " A plain 
allusion," says Dr. Adam Clarke, "to 
the journeyings of the Israelites in 
the deserts of Arabia on their way to 
the promised land." The Koran has a 



102 



JOB. 



in a wilderness where there is no way. 
25 w They grope in the dark without 
light, and he maketh them to 12 x stagger 
like a drunken man. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

LO, a mine eye hath seen all this, mine 
ear hath heard and understood 
it. 2 b What ye know, the same do I 
know also : I am not inferior unto you. 



wDeut. 28. 29; chap. 5. 14. 12 Heb. wan- 
der. ccPsa. 107. 27. a Chap. 5. 9, 16; 12. 9; 

42. 3, 6. b Chap. 12. 3. 



similar thought in connexion with the 
leadership of Moses : " God causeth to 
err whom he pleaseth, and directeth 
whom he pleaseth." (Sur. xiv, 5.) 

25. They grope, etc. — They feel the 
darkness and not light. — Gesenius. The 
reading of the Septuagint is nearly the 
same. Their blindness must be intense, 
when the sense of feeling is their sight. 
He maketh — God is said to do what he 
permits to be done. Men who resist 
grace he leaves a prey to the laws 
of nature — laws outside of the king- 
dom of grace. Their work God is said 
to perform, because it is through laws 
of his enactment. If he withdraw 
the enlightening and restraining influ- 
ences of his grace, the twofold result — 
darkness and confusion — must follow. 
Thus deserted, nations like Egypt, (Isa. 
xix, 14,) and individuals like Saul, alike 
stagger to their doom. The withdraw- 
al of himself is the great positive evil 
God inflicts upon an impure soul in 
the eternal world. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Second division, first section — Job's 

DESIRE TO TRANSFER HIS CAUSE FROM 
FALSE AND SYCOPHANTISH FRIENDS 
DIRECTLY TO GOD, 1-12. 

First strophe — Announcing his pur- 
pose to appeal to God, Job cannot refrain 
from a well-deserved castigation of his 
persecutors, 1-6. 

2. Inferior unto you — See on xii, 2. 

3. Zophar (xi, 5) had thought to 
silence Job by calling upon God to ap- 
pear against him. Job now takes 
Zophar at his word, by a summons for 
God to the controversy. This furnishes 
the clew to this chapter. God. and he 
alone, can arbitrate upon the cold, cruel 
judgments of men. 



3 r Surely 1 would speak to the Al- 
mighty, and I desire to reason with God. 

4 But ye are forgers of lies, d ye are all 
physicians of no value. 5 Oh that ye 
would altogether hold your peace ! and 
e it should be your wisdom. . 6 Hear 
now my reasoning, and hearken to the 
pleadings of my lips. 7 f Will ye speak 
wickedly for God ? and talk deceitfully 
for him ? 8 e Will ye accept his person ? 



c Chapter 23. 3 ; 31. 35. d Chapter 6. 21 ; 16. 2. 

— eProv. 17. 28. -/Chap. 17. 5; 32. 21; 36. 4. 

— g Exod. 23. 2, 3 ; Prov. 24. 23. 



4. Forgers of lies — Taphal, " to 
forge," "to stitch upon or together," 
primarily means to 'glue together," 
(Gesenius,) or "smear over." The lie 
needs no " glueing " to bind itfast to its 
victim. To save the good name of 
God they fasten upon Job the imputa- 
tion of guilt. Physicians of no value 
— The Talmud strangely calls them 
healers of the jugular artery, the cut- 
ting of which produces death, hence 
the healers of the incurable. (Delitzscb.) 
A friend has been called the physician 
of the sou] ; in some such sense the 
word is used here. They failed in all 
the offices of friendship, and hence 
were worthless. Of no value — The 
word in the original thus rendered, sig- 
nifies also idols, thus indicating their 
nothingness— worthlessness. Hence the 
apostle says, We know that an idol is 
nothing. 1 Cor. viii, 4. 

5. Wisdom— The Arabs say, " The 
wise are dumb, and silence is wisdom," 
" Silence gains love," " To repent after 
silence is better than to repent after 
wisdom." — Cited by Erpenius. 

6. Reasoning — Better, reproof. 
Second strophe — Such is Job's fiery 

indignation at the dishonesty and arro- 
gance of the friends in assuming to be 
God's advocates, that he still turns aside 
from his main purpose of appeal that he 
may chide them anew, 1-12. 

7. Deceitfully — In the sense of so- 
phistically. Their sophism assumed 
the form of a dilemma— either Job is 
a transgressor or God is unjust. But 
the dilemma necessarily failed in the 
latter condition, and thus the whole 
fell to the ground. 

8. Accept his person— Literally, 
face ; that is, be partial for God. They 
gave a distorted view of the divine ad- 



CHAPTER XIII. 



103 



will ye contend for God ? 9 Is it good 
that he should search you out ? or as 
one man h mocketh another, do ye so 
mock him ? 10 He will surely reprove 
you, if ye do secretly accept persons. 
11 Shall not his excellency make you 
afraid ? and his dread fall upon you ? 



h Chap. 17. 2 ; Isa. 28. 22 ; Gal. 6. 7. 1 Hebrew, 

be silent from me. 



ministration. They glossed over two 
unmistakable facts: the prosperity of 
the wicked and the sufferings of the 
innocent. This they did that they 
might relieve, as they thought, the 
character of God. 

9. Search you out — Better, Search 
you through — to the bottom. The nat- 
ural heart, like birds of the night, ab- 
hors the light. It closes its every ave- 
nue against God. Its " chambers of 
imagery " are so filled with deceit, pas- 
sion, lust, pride, envy — its idolatrous 
walls so traced with every form of 
creeping thing, (Ezek. viii, 12,) — as to 
render God's searching presence the 
greatest of conceivable evils. A good 
man, on the other hand, desires to 
know the worst of himself. His prayer 
is: "Search me, God, and know my 
heart." 

1 1 . His dread fall upon you — Pi- 
neda gives, in this place, a Spanish prov- 
erb, The hill and the stones are God's: 
that is, the vantage ground is his. 

12. Remembrances — Memorable 
sayings. Like unto ashes — Are max- 
ims of ashes. In the East, ashes are re- 
garded as of no value, fit only to be trod- 
den under foot, (Mai. iv, 3,) hence an 
image of worthlessness, Gen. xviii, 27. 
Bodies — Strongholds. The original is 

3J, gab, a back, the boss of a shield, 

thence a bulwark, etc. " Bulwarks 
of clay" were easily demolished. In 
those days the tower of stone was the 
symbol of strength. The "old saws" 
of the friends were " proverbs of ashes,' 1 ' 1 
their glittering bulwarks, "bulwarks 
of mud,;" a strict parallelism of thought. 
In this contemptuous setting of their 
"remembrances," zikronim, in simili- 
tudes of ashes and mud, there is a keen 
verbal thrust at the stately "Bemem- 
ber, I pray thee," of Eliphaz. [Zekor- 
na, iv, 7.) Compare chap, viii, 8. 



12 Your remembrances are like unto 
ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay. 

13 * Hold your peace, let me alone, that 
I may speak, and let come on me what 
will. 14 Wherefore { do I take my flesh 
in my teeth, and k put my life in mine 
hand? 15 'Though he slay me, yet 

i Chap. 18. 4. * 1 Sam. 28. 21 ; Psa. 119. 109. 

ZPsa. 23.4; Prov. 14.32. 



Second section — Job resolves to 

APPEAR BEFORE GOD WITH HIS APPEAL, 
EVEN AT THE RISK OF HIS LIFE, 13-22. 

(Compare Exodus xxxiii, 20; Judges 
xiii, 22.) 

First strophe — His extreme fear of God 
on the one. hand, and his deep-rooted con- 
sciousness of innocence on the other, in- 
volve him in a painful oscillation of mind 
ere he reaches the full decision to cite God 
to judgement, 13-16. 

14. Take my flesh in my teeth — 
The second member of this verse helps 
to determine the meaning of the first. 
The "taking of one's life in one's 
hand " means its voluntary exposure 
to great danger, (Judges xii, 3 ; 1 Sam. 
xix, 5, etc.) " To take one's flesh in 
his teeth " is probably a similar proverb 
for an imminent risk knowingly incur- 
red ; perhaps kindred to that cited by 
Schultens from the Arabic, " His flesh 
is on the butcher's block." Minister 
observes, " He who exposes his life to 
perils does not spare himself; thus he 
does not spare himself who bites his 
own flesh with his teeth." 

15. Though he slay me, yet will 
I trust in him — "This is one of the 
highest among the notabilia of Scrip- 
ture," (Chalmers,) and yet its inter- 
pretation is disputed. The question is 
whether the Hebrew word fa, lo, trans- 
lated in him, should not be ifa, lo, sig- 
nifying not. The manuscripts favour 

the frO, not ; but the Masoretes regard- 
ed it as an error, and have put into 
the margin a note called keri. This 
informs the reader that the copyists 
have erred in this one word, and that 
it should be read as our version has it, 
in him. There are fourteen other 
passages in the entire Bible in which 
the keri substitutes lo, (for him,) for lo, 
not. See Delitzsch on Isaiah xiii, 9. 
Similar to these clerical errors is that 



104 



JOB. 



will I trust in him : m but I will 2 main- 
tain min e own ways before him. 1 6 He 
also shall be my salvation : for a hypo- 
crite shall not come before him. 1 7 Hear 
diligently my speech, and. my declara- 
tion with your ears. 1 8 Behold now, I 
have ordered my cause ; n I know that I 
shall be justified. 19 "Who is he that 



m Chap. 27. 5. 2 Hebrew, prove, or, argue. 

wlsa. 43. 26; Rom. 8. 33,34. 

one in our own version of the New 
Testament where at is printed for out : 
"Strain at a gnat." (Matt, xxiii, 24.) 
The old versions, as well as the old 
Jewish critics, Latin and English com- 
mentators, (among those to be except- 
ed are Noyes, Davidson, and Conant,) 
adopt the reading of in him. On the 
contrary, lo, not, is defended by most 
German commentators, yet with such 
exceptions as Arnheim and Delitzsch. 
If it be read lo, not, the sense is not 
necessarily changed. " Whichever way 
you read it, the sense is the same. For 
if it is read not, it will be pronounced in- 
terrogatively — although he kill me shall 
I not hope?" — Calvin The Germans, 
however, prefer to read it as an affir- 
mation. Thus Ewald, "Yet he will 
slay me ! I hope not." (A feeble plati- 
tude!) "With Job, here as elsewhere, 
(xiv, 14, 15; xix, 25,) the deeper the 
night of gloom and despair the more 
vivid the lightning gleams of faith and 
hope. In his Titanic struggles he re- 
sembles the ancient giant who, when 
he touched the earth, is fabled to have 
gathered new life and hope. The word 

fjrVX, translated "trust," signifies also 

hope. Death and hope here join hand 
in hand. Death has no power to slay 
hope ; "Job's hope almost enlivened his 
death. He had more life in death than 
most men have in their lives." — Caryl. 
" It is the sign of a great soul always 
to hope," said the heathen historian, 
Floras, (iv, 8;) the child of God goes 
beyond and plants his standard of faith 
on the dther side of the brink of death. 
The last movement of the wasted fin- 
gers of Grace Aguilar, a Jewess, was 
to spell the words, "Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust in him." 

16. He ... my salvation — He, God, 
not this, as some read. " Job reassures 



will plead with me ? for now, if I hold 
my tongue, I shall give up the ghost. 

20 p Only do not two thinas unto me ; 
then will I not hide myself from thee. 

2 1 q Withdraw thine hand far from me : 
and let not thy dread make me afraid. 

22 Then r call thou, and I will answer : 
or let me speak, and answer thou me. 



oCliap. 33. 6; Isa. 50. 8. v Chap. 9. 34; 33. 7. 

<?Psa. 39. 10. r Job 38. 3; 40. 4, 5. 



himself with the thought that God 
cannot reveal himself to the wicked." — 
Renan. If then God accepts his chal- 
lenge, it will be a virtual concession of 
his innocence. 

Second strophe — Fixed in his determi- 
nation to enter the lists with Deity, Job first 
pleads with God that he should forego the 
advantages omnipotence gives, so that his 
servant may have a fair and just trial, 
17-22. 

1 8. Ordered — Set in order, or made 
ready. 

19. He — Hitzig is right in his view 
that " he " refers only to God. If God 
seriously question his innocence, poor 
Job can only keep silent and expire. 
If I hold my tongue — Tayler Lewis 
reads as in the text, but a better read- 
ing is : I would be silent and die. 

20. Two things — Specified in the fol- 
lowing verse : 1. That God would grant 
him a respite from trouble ; 2. That he 
would not overwhelm with his terror. 

21. Thy dread— Thy terror; "the 
terror of the Lord." (2 Cor. v, 11.) 

22. These phrases are regarded as 
judicial. He calls upon God to appear 
either as plaintiff^or defendant. "In 
contrast with God Job feels himself to 
be a poor worm, but his consciousness 
of innocence makes him a Titan." — 
Delitzsch. The language of Job is that 
of passion, which he himself in soberer 
moments condemned. 

Third division — The appeal to God, 
23-28, and chap. xiv. 

First strophe — .4 s if God stood before 
him in the character of an accuser, Job 
plies him for the reasons of his conduct : 
1. Ihat he should hide his face; 2. Show 
himself an enemy ; 3. Issue bitter decrees 
against him ; 4. " Punish sins long since 
passed;" 5. Cruelly hamper and im- 
prison him with disease, 23-28: a gra- 
dation Mercerus had observed. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



105 



23 How many are mine iniquities 
and sins ? make me to know my trans- 
gression and my sin. 24 s Wherefore 
hidest thou thy face, and l holdest me for 
thine enemy I 25 u Wilt thou break 
a leaf driven to and fro ? and wilt 
thou pursue the dry stubble ? 26 For 
thou writest bitter things against me, 



sDeut. 32. 20; Psa. 13. 1; 44. 24; 88. 14; Isa. 

8. 17. rfDeut. 32. 42; Ruth 1. 21; chap. 16. 9; 

19. 11 ; 33. 10 ; Lam. 2. 5. 



Hitzig supposes that Job here made 
a pause, in expectation " that God 
would appear and take up the word." 

23. He now commences his most 
pathetic appeal to God, which is con- 
tinued through the next chapter. He 
begins to "reason with God," as he 
had expressed his desire to do in verse 3. 
Job does not deny having committed 
sin, but he does deny sins proportion- 
ate to his calamities. Sin of a most hei- 
nous character has already been fore- 
shadowed in the insinuation of Bildad, 
(viii, 6,) and in the onslaught of Zophar, 
(xi, 11, 12.) In the opinion of some, 
(see Carey on ii, 7,) the disease with 
which Satan cursed Job spoke of a 
licentious life. This may account for 
his insisting so strenuously on the pu- 
rity of his life, xxxi, 1-12. 

25. Break — Terrify, agitate, (chase) 
— Gesenius. A fallen leaf chased hith- 
er and thither by omnipotence: such 
was fallen Job. The figure is one of 
simplicity and yet one of power. " A 
glimmering wick shall He not quench." 
Isa. xlii, 3. " I have heard divines say, 
that those virtues that were but sparks 
upon earth shall become great and 
glorious flames in heaven." — Izaak 

Walton. 

26. Thou writest— A judicial term, 
observes Rosenmuller, referring to the 
custom of writing the sentence of a 
person condemned, thus decreeing the 
punishment. Psa. cxlix, 9. Among 
the Arabs a writing is used to denote 
a judicial sentence. Bitter things — 
Prof. Lee mentions an Oriental adage, 
" Disease and want are two things 
more bitter than the juice of the colo- 
cynth." Possess — Inherit. Iniqui- 
ties — Same as in verse 23, from niy, 

to be bent or distorted. "Evil is a de- 
parture from man's appointed path." 



and v makest me to possess the iniqui- 
ties of my youth. 27 w Thou puttest 
my feet also in the stocks, and 3 look- 
est narrowly unto all my paths ; thou 
settest a print upon the 4 heels of my 
feet. 28 And he, as a rotten thing, 
consumeth, as a garment that is moth- 
eaten. 



•wlsa. 42. 3. tfChap. 20. 11; Psa. 25. 7. 

w Chap. 33. 11. 3 Hebrew, observest. 4 He- 
brew, roots. 



The iniquities of my youth — Nature 
is ever slow to punish the transgressor. 
God's mercy is thus proclaimed through 
the constitution of things he has him- 
self founded. Youth is blindly led 
to presume upon apparent security. 
Nature, however, never forgets. She 
"lays up the depths in storehouses;" 
so all transgressions are housed against 
a retributive future. At the period of 
man's greatest feebleness, amid the 
infirmities of many years, she lets loose 
against the transgressor imprisoned 
evils — the sins of youth. They prove 
a fearful heritage, upon which the man 
as naturally enters as a child does 
upon the estate of a deceased parent. 
Thus, in a sense vastly different from 
that, the Italian artist thought, "the 
remembrance of youth is a sigh." 

27. The stocks— Some kind of clog 
for the feet, which the culprit shuffled 
about with him when he moved, per- 
haps similar to those in more recent 
times fastened to the feet of malefactors 
or fugitive slaves. "At Pompeii stocks 
have been found so contrived that ten 
prisoners might be chained by the leg, 
each leg separately, by the sliding of a 
bar." — Krrro, Pictorial Bible. Thou 
settest a print — Literally, Around the 
roots of my feet thou settest a bound. Thus 
he was imprisoned against any possibil- 
ity of escape. Heels — Literally, roots : 
' that part of the feet through which, 
standing or going, like a tree through 
its roots, man is fastened to the earth." 
— Stickel. The figures in this verse 
hinge upon the swollen condition of his 
feet — a marked feature of the elephan- 
tiasis, in the course of which, says Wi- 
ner, (Rwb., i, 115,) "the feet swell to 
a horrible extent." See note ii, 7. 

28. Rotten thing — Rottenness. Such 
as caries, or decay, in wood. The most 



106 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MAN that is born of a woman is 1 of 
few days, and a full of trouble. 
2 b He cometh forth like a flower, and is 
cut down : he fleeth also as a shadow, 



1 Heb. short of days. a Chap. 5. 7 : Eccles- 

2. 23. o Chap. 8. 9 ; Psa. 90. 5, 6, 9 ; 102. 11 ; 

103. 15; 144. 4; Isa. 40. 6; James 1. 10, 11; 4. 14; 

destructive agencies work in silence. 
11 A moth does mischief, and makes no 
sound ; so the minds of the wicked, in 
that they neglect to take account of 
their losses, lose their soundness, as it 
were, without knowing it. For they 
lose innocency from the heart, truth 
from the lips, continency from the 
flesh, and, as time holds on, life from 
their age." — St. Gregory, Moralia. 
And he — Thus speaking of himself in 
the third person, Job paves the way to 
the sad estate of man as man, which 
forms the subject of the next chapter. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Second strophe — Man's 'physical and 
moral estate (the best he possesses) pleads 
with God that he should rather turn from 
(look away from him) than deign even to 
open his eye upon so. contemptible a crea- 
ture, 1-6. 

"Job's appeal is for mercy; his ar- 
gument is weakness, constitutional and 
mo rah ' ' — Davidson. 

1. Born of a woman — Like pro- 
duces like. If woman be frail, feeble, 
and subject to suffering and infirmit} r , 
man, her offspring, shall be subjected 
to like frailty. " Every one," says an 
Arabian poet, " who is born of woman, 
however long his prosperity may en- 
dure, must one day be carried forth on 
a bier." Full of trouble — Or, unrest, 
W"1. The famous hymn which re- 
sounds in heaven when the luminous 
rays of the smile of Buddha penetrate 
through the clouds is, " All is transi- 
tory, all is misery, all is void, all is 
without substance." — Max Mutter. The 
estimate of life that the Buddhist thus 
sings is not more sad than that of 
G-oethe, " They have called me a child 
of fortune, nor have I any wish to 
complain of the course of my life. 
Yet it has been nothing but labour and 
sorrow; and I may truly say, that in 
seventy-five years I have not had four 



and continueth not. 3 And c dost thou 
open thine eyes upon such a one, and 
d bringest me into judgment with thee ? 
4 2 Who e can bring a clean thing out of 
an unclean ? not one. 5 f Seeing his 

1 Pet. 1. 24. cPsa. 144. 3. tZPsa. 143. 2. ■ 

2 Heb. Who will give. e G-en. 5. 3 : Psa. 51. 5 ; 

John 3. 6; Rom. 5. 12; Eph. 2. 3. -/Chap. 7. 1. 

weeks of true comfort. It was the 
constant rolling of a stone that was 
always to be lifted anew." — Cited by 
Rauch. 

2. Like a flower — But as for the 
flowers and their perfumes, nature 
has given them birth but for a day 
— a mighty lesson to man. (Pliny, 
Hist, xxi, chap. 1.) The flower rises 
from the dark recesses of its mother 
earth ; so man cometh forth from 
eternity, which in like manner is 
Dpiy, hidden and dark. Ever frail and 

perishable, they both abide, for a little 
while, the sport of change and storm, 
and at last sink into the unknown 
whence they came. (Compare Eccles. 
vi, 4.) Is cut down — Withereih. 
Aristotle defined man to be "the spoil 
of time," and St. Augustine compares 
his frailty to the fragility of glass. A 
shadow — ''What shadows we are, 
what shadows we pursue." — Edmund 
Burke. (See note iv, 19.) 

3. Open thine eyes — Dost Thou 
condescend even to look upon such 
being, much less to arraign him in 
judgment for the deeds of a life so 
vain ? 

4. Who can bring — Literally, who 
will give. In almost every case in the 
Old Testament this form of question is 
idiomatic, and is used (as in verse 13) to 
express a desire. Some would accord- 
ingly read, " Could but a clean thing 
come out of an unclean!" — Schlott- 
mann. The idea would still be, that 
such a result, however much to be 
desired, is an impossibility. Not one 
pure being comes forth. Compare the 
not one of Psa. xiv, 3. The law of evil 
is such that a pure nature cannot spring 
from an impure one. " That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh." Hence the 
intervention of the Holy Ghost was in- 
dispensable that one pure being might 
be born of a woman. Luke i, 35. 

5. Seeing — Literally, " If his days 



CHAPTER XIV. 



107 



days are determined, the number of his 
months are with thee, thou hast appoint- 
ed his bounds that lie cannot pass ; 
6 B Tum from him, that he may 3 rest, 
till he shall accomplish, h as a hireling, 
his day. 7 For there is hope of a tree, 

g Chapter 7. 16, 19 ; 10. 20 ; Psalm 39. 13. 



are determined," (as is the case.) This 
entire verse, with its three conditions, 
the two latter of which spring out of 
the former, is an hypothesis on which 
Job rests his touching appeal in ver. 6. 

The limit (l|5n) of man's life is known 

to God, and to God only. That any limit 
should be "appointed" (literally, made) 
to the existence of man is due to his 
sinful nature. But this divine knowl- 
edge is in nowise inconsistent with 
man's free agency. The Scriptures 
most expressly declare that the length 
of life a man shall live is in some way 
dependent upon the kind of life he 
lives. Exod. xx, 12; Deut. xxx, 20; 
1 Kings hi, 14; Psa. lv. 23; Isa. xxxviii, 
4. etc. Fatalism belongs not to the 
Scriptures — it is the creed of false re- 
ligions. After the disastrous field of 
Ohod, Mohammed announced a new 
revelation, that " every man had his 
appointed time, whether in bed or on 
the field of battle." See note on xv, 32. 

6. Accomplish — The Hebrew also 
signifies delight in, as a hireling does in 
the day — "to wit: as past, in the rest 
and quiet of the evening." — Gesenius. 
The text is better. It is unbecoming 
God to treat cruelly so ephemeral a be- 
ing. Man's lot at best is that of a hire- 
ling, vii, 1. But the hireling, however 
degraded his lot, has a natural right to 
sympathy and to rest. Job, in behalf 
of man, laj'S claim to the common 
rights of the serf. 

Third strophe — Another reason why 
God should be merciful to man is, the 
hopelessness of his death. Throughout all 
nature, other than human, death springs 
to life, but man dies forever, so far as this 
world is concerned, 7-12. 

7. For — Introduces another reason 
for the plea in verse 6. Tender branch 
— Sprout. The description from verse 
7 to 9 is specially applicable to the 
palm-tree, which is endowed with a 



if it be cut down, ' that it will sprout 
again, and that the tender branch there- 
of will not cease. 8 Though the root 
thereof wax old in the earth, and the 
stock thereof die in the gi-ound ; 9 Yet 
through the scent of water it will bud, 



3Heb. cease. 7iChap. 7. 1. i Verse 14. 



wonderful vitality, whence it becomes a 
figure for youthful vigour. The Greeks 
gave the same name phoznix (palm- 
tree) to the wondrous bird which fable 
represented as rising again from its 
own ashes. " Even when centuries 
have at last destroyed the palm," says 
Masius, whom Delitzsch quotes, "thou- 
sands of inextricable fibres of parasites 
cling about the stem." In the country 
east of the Jordan, the walnut-tree 
ceases to bear much after one hundred 
years, and becomes hollow 'and de- 
cayed. It is then cut down to within 
two o,' three yards from the ground. 
If the trees are well watered, now 
shoots spring up in a year in uncom- 
mon luxuriance, and bear fruit the sec- 
ond year. (Wetzstein.) "The Romans," 
says Rosenmiiller, "made those trees 
to be the symbol of death which, be- 
ing cut down, do not live again, and 
from whose roots no germs arise, such 
as the pine and cypress." The revivi- 
fication of nature, in contrast to the 
hopeless death of man, has often in- 
spired the muse to elegiac strains, as 
with the poet Moschus bewailing the 
death of Bion ; also the poets Catullus 
and Horace, and even the Yajur Ve- 
da. See Wordsworth, Good, or Barnes. 
Compare with Job's melancholy strains 
the exquisite, but quite as hopeless, 
lines of Beattie's Hermit: " "lis night." 
etc., and closing with — 

But when shall spring visit the mouldering 

urn? 
O ! when shall it dawn on the night of the 

grave? 

8. Though — If. The poet supposes 
another case : that the tree, instead of 
being cut down, grows old and dies. 

9. The scent of water — In Judges 
xvi, 9 a thread of tow is represented 
as smelling the fire (margin); the verb 
corresponding to the noun of our text. 
Dan. iii, 27. Wherever the palm-tree 
grows, though in the midst of a desert, 



108 



JOB. 



and bring forth boughs like a plant. 
10 But man dieth, and 4 wasteth away : 
yea, man givethup the ghost, and where 
whe? 1 1 As the waters fail from the 



4 Hebrew, is weaken ed, or, cut «„ 
102. 26 ; Isaiah 51. 6 ; 65. 17 ; 66. 22 



Psalm 
Acts 3. 21 ; 



the traveller may be justified in digging 
for water. Such was the opinion of Sir 
Sydney Smith. Like a plant — "As 
if newly planted." — Septuagink 

10. Wasteth away — Lies powerless. 
(Eurst.) Lies stretched out. (Delitzsch.) 
A like epithet is applied to death by 
Homer, II, (viii, 70,) ravnAeyr/c "lay- 
ing one out at length." Like the tree 
when cut down, man, " the mighty 
man," (geber.) has no inward power of 
recovery ; lie " lies powerless." He 
who swayed the sceptre of a world can- 
not now lift an eyelid. And where 
he ? — The very question seems to imply 
the continued existence of the man ; 
but where f It has often rung through 
the caverns of the grave, but without 
response. The ancient custom (still 
perpetuated at the death of a Roman 
pontiff) was a most touching one, that 
of thrice calling the name of the dead 
man over his own pale corpse. 

11. The sea— The word sea is some- 
times used for the River Nile, and 
sometimes for the Euphrates. (Jer. 
li, 36.) The point of comparison, ac- 
cording to Umbreit, lies between the 
dried-up and rugged channel of a once 
flowing stream or lake, and the out- 
stretched corpse of a once living and 
acting man. Compare Isa. xix, 5, where 
the Hebrew is almost a literal citation. 

12. Riseth not — Among the most 
ancient and universal beliefs was that 
of the transmigration of souls. It was 
man's natural recoil from annihilation. 
He preferred to live in any mode, even 
in the grossest form of the brute, rath- 
er than that his being should be ex- 
tinguished. Job is thought by some 
to have in view this false belief: he 
means rather to affirm that at death 
man ceases forever from this world. 
There is no root, shoot, bough, or form 
of being that can spring out of the man 
when once he is dead. Till the heav- 
ens be no more — "That is, never. 
For things unchangeable and eternal 
are in Scripture compared in duration 



sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth 
up ; 12 So man lieth down, and riseth 
not : k till the heavens be no more, they 
shall not awake, nor be raised out of 



Romans 8. 20; 2 Peter 3. 7, 10, 11 
20. 11 ; 21. 1. 



Revelation 



to the heavens." Such is the view of 
Nbyes and the G-erman commentators. 
The passage really has respect to the 
restoration of present life in this world. 
The law that involves man in complete 
and hopeless destruction shall forever 
prevail, or, in Job's language, "till the 
heavens be no more." Of the same 
heavens of which Job speaks the psalm- 
ist says, (cii, 26,) "they shall perish; " 

f~QN, the strong Hebrew word for 

"perish," — used alike of men and ani-. 
mals.) Isaiah (li, 6) also says of the 
heavens, "They shall vanish away like 

smoke," !U"Pft}, literally, " be rubbed to 

pieces," resolved into atoms like smoke. 
Compare Isaiah lxv, 17 ; 2 Peter iii, 10, 
etc. So that, many think, this dark 
passage has in it the germ of hope, or 
at least, that it falls into the category 
of unconscious foreshadowings of scrip- 
ture truth. It is evident there was 
a very ancient belief that the heavens 
and earth should be destroyed. Ovid 
speaks of such a prediction (Met. 1, 256), 
Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, etc. 
It was a common opinion of the Stoics 
that the whole world would catch fire, 
(Minucius Felix, xxxiv, 2,) and in its 
destruction "involve the very elements 
and the frame of the universe." Com- 
pare Lucretius, lib. v, 97. The ancient 
Hindu held a similar belief. At the 
end of the last calpa the whole creation, 
nay, the host of gods themselves, will 
be overwhelmed in one common de- 
struction. The sagas of the Scandi- 
navian, and the old Runic mythology, 
confirm the great antiquity of this 
dogma, which may have had its origin 
in Egypt, (see Pritchard's Mythology, 
pp. 181, 192,) or more probably in some 
primeval revelation. It does not ap- 
pear improbable that such a tradition 
was in the mind of Job. If so, to 
say that the dead shall not be raised 
out of their sleep till the heavens be 
no more is equivalent to saying that 



CHAPTER XIV. 



109 



their sleep. 13 Oh that thou wouldest 
hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest 
keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, 
that thou wouldest appoint me a set 



I Matt. 22. 29, 32; John 5. 28, 29 ; Acts 26. 8. 



when the heavens are no more the 
dead shall be raised out of their sleep. 
•• And man that has lain dowm (in death) 
shall certainly not rise again till the 
heavens be dissolved." — Septuagint. 

Fourth strophe — Job's abiding faith in 
God 's deep love for his intelligent crea- 
tures illumes the regions of the dead with 
the hope that the time shall come when 
God's wrath will "turn" and the dead 
be released from sheol — a hope which is 
immediately beclouded by the thought 
that God has already been preternatur ally 
severe in punishing his transgressions, 
13-17. 

13. Thou wouldest hide me — As 
men, for protection, hide treasures in 
the earth. The dead in the grave are 
God's hidden treasures. Compare Psa. 
lxxxiii, 3. In the grave — In sheol. 
See Excursus, p. 72. Gloomiest life in 
sheol is better than extinction of being. 
Wrath be past — Death itself was the 
great wrath for whose turning (2V&) 
the pious dead in the earliest times 
were represented as waiting. (See 
Lakge's Genesis, 275.) The ancients 
buried their dead in caverns or sepul- 
chres of the rocks. These naturally 
suggested the idea of a covert from the 
tempest. The Hebrew hoped that a time 
would come for the storm to cease, and 
that the dominion of death, though long 
protracted, would have an end. A set 
time — In the opinion of Dr. Adam 
Clarke this refers to the resurrection; 
" for what else can be said to be an 
object of desire to one wdiose body is 
mingled with the dust? " 

14. Shall he live? — That which 
follows is equivalent to an affirmative 
answer to this momentous question, 
since Job is emboldened to wait or hope 
(yahhal) till his change or reviviscence 
shall come. " Upon closer reflection it 
is clear to him that the wish of the 
preceding verse comprehends within 
itself a renewal of life from the dead. 
Also he asks himself, 'If man dies, 
lives he again?' and without giving 



time, and remember me ! 14 If a man 
die, ' shall he live again ? all the days 
of my appointed time m will I wait, n till 
my change come. 15 ° Thou shalt call, 



mChap. 13. 15. n Verse 7. oChap. 13. 22. 

himself an answer, he proceeds to take 
pleasure in the thought, and, full of 
ecstasy, to set before himself the con- 
sequences that follow 'all the days,'" 
etc. (Dillmann.) Even Renan makes 
here an important admission; "Job 
floats," he says, "between despair and 
confidence. Sometimes he is struck 
with the fact that man is never restored 
to life, (ressuscite ;) sometimes he thinks 
that God could well recall him to life, 
and compares himself in sheol (Venfer) 
to a soldier on duty who waits till he 
may be relieved." If a man die — the 
strong man, the being of might, (geber,) 
— shall he live ? If such a being as man 
die ! (A proper emphasis of the ques- 
tion gives the aroma of hope.) The 
Chinese philosopher Confucius evaded 
a similar question. " I venture to ask 
about death," said Ke Loo. He was 
answered, ""While you do not know 
life, how can you know about death ? " 
(Analects, xi, sec. xi.) Appointed time 
— XH¥, warfare. Compare vii, 1. "The 

miserable state of the shades in she- 
ol is compared to the hard service of 
soldiers *on guard." — Gesenius. My 
change — TIS vFI- This wondrous word 

hhalipha is sometimes used for the relief 
of a guard or the release of a sentinel 
from his post. Some change from, or in, 
the estate of death is plainly indicated 
by the use of this word. In the seventh 
verse it designated the reviviscence of 
a tree, and it is strongly presumable 
that it is used here for renewal of life, 
whether in the military sense of re- 
lief from a darksome post, or in the 
sense of reanimation. With consum- 
mate skill Job may have blended the 
two in a mixed metaphor, a rhetorical 
form common with the Apostle Paul. 
The Septuagint reads it, "I will wait till 
I am made agaiu." Though mingled 
with gloom, the thought is a sublime 
one : .The dead, the righteous dead, in 
their dismal abode, await a coming One 
who shall bring deliverance. Job's 



110 



JOB. 



and I will answer thee : thou wilt have 
a desire to the work of thine hands. 
16 p For now thou numberest my steps : 
dost thou not watch over my sin ? 17 My 



V Chap. in. 6, 14 ; 13. 27 ; 31. 4 ; 34. 21 ; Psa. 56. 
139. 1-3 : Prov. 5. 21 ; Jer. 32. 19. 



spirit already pierces through the dark- 
ness of sheol, and descries the day- 
spring of hope. The lineaments may 
not be distinct, yet even here he catches 
a glimpse of "The Last " — of Him who 
shall stand upon the dust. Chap, xix, 25. 

15. Have a desire — Pine or yearn 
for; primarily, become pale, (like silver,) 
as when, under strong emotion, the 
blood withdraws from the face. The 
figure is a forcible one to express the 
divine yearning over the dead, a yearn- 
ing that culminates in their recall to 
life. Thou shalt call— And that " call " 
shall penetrate into sheol. The work 
of thine hands — The human body 
(comp. x, 9). This passage (vers. 13-1 5) 
is one of prime significance in the olden 
theology of hope. Hitherto Job's de- 
spair had surrounded the abode of the 
dead with the deepest gloom. To his 
disconsolate mind it was " a land of 
darkness, as darkness itself." Chap. 
x, 22. But now, trembling rays of light 
arise from the distant horizon, from the 
other side of sheol. As in the total 
eclipse of the sun the opposite horizon 
is lighted up with the bright" tints of 
an early dawn, so here, where there 
was apparently an entire extinction of 
hope, a dawn rises upon the sky. " The 
hope of eternal life," says an old com- 
mentator, "is a flower which grows on 
the verge of the abyss." 

16. For now — Returning to his 
complaint concerning the evils of life, 
he gives the reason why he desires the 
release or respite spoken of in the pre- 
ceding verse. It is that G-od " num- 
bers his steps ;" that is, holds him as a 
transgressor, t^as in xiii, 21,) and keeps 
watch for his sins, lest, perchance, any 
of them should escape punishment. 
Dost thou not watch, etc. — Some 
(as Delitzsch) construe this phrase to be 
an affirmation that God does not keep 
back wrath, but punishes immediately. 
To this there is the twofold objection of 
weakened and unharmonious sense and 
of the necessity of supplying aph, wrath. 



transgression q *s sealed up in a bag, and 
thou sewest up mine iniquity. 18 And 
surely the mountain falling * 5 cometh to 
nought, and the rock is removed out of 



q Deut. 32. 34; Jer. 2. 22; Hos. 13. 12; Rom. 2. 5; 
James 5. 3. 5 Heb.fadeth. 



17. Sealed... in a bag — The money 
that is collected together in the treas- 
uries of eastern princes is told up in 
certain equal sums, put into bags, and 
sealed. (Chardin.) The ancients used 
a seal where we use a lock. Even to 
the present day, in eastern countries, 
bags of money pass current without 
being counted, so long as the seal re- 
mains unbroken. Sins are treasured up 
for a day of final reckoning. They are 
thus declared to be of moment in the 
sight of God. All sins are against God, 
and involve not only his law, but his 
entire being. One by one, and silent- 
ly, they enter into the divine remem- 
brance, and none can be lost Sewest 
up — Literally, sewest on ; the taphal of 
xiii, 4, which leads some to interpret 
it, " Thou addest iniquity to iniquity, 
one upon the other," (Mercerus,) thus 
charging upon God that he makes the 
sins of his creature to be greater than 
they are. But such a sense is incon- 
gruous. Job means simply to say that 
God takes the greatest precaution lest 
any sins should be lost — even to the 
sewing them up against any possible 
rending of their receptacle. 

Fifth strophe — Job's final outcry to 
God feelingly urges man's dismal fate, 
with nature, God, and sheol against him, 
18-22. 

18. And surely — But. He now pro- 
ceeds to sum up. Cometh to nought 
— Decayeth. Literally, ivithereth like a 
leaf. A bold metaphor. Zophar had 
promised Job, if he would repent, en- 
during prosperity, (xi, 15-20.) In a 
world, Job tacitly replies, where there 
is nothing substantial — where things 
most stable are overwhelmed with de- 
struction — there is nothing for man to 
hope. Nature is at war with itself, and 
God with man. Instability character- 
izes every conceivable work of God's 
creative power. ./Elian says, that it 
was the general opinion in his time 
that mounts Parnassus, Olympus, and 
Etna had much diminished in size. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Ill 



his place. 19 The waters wear the 
Ptones : thou 6 washest away the things 
which grow out of the dust of the earth ; 
and thou destroyest the hope of man. 
20 Thou prevailestfor ever against him, 
and he passeth : thou changest his coun- 
tenance, and sendest him away. 21 His 

6 Heb. overjloicest. 



19. Washest away, etc. — Its 
(referring to "waters," used collective- 
ly) wash away the dust of the earth, leav- 
ing desolation in their track. The gra- 
dation of the passage is peculiar — it 
follows the course of disintegration : 
from mountains to rocks, from rocks to 
stones, thence to the dust of the earth ; 
and thus the mountain comes to nought. 
Nature and man alike decay away into 
dust. 

20. Thou prevailest — Existence is 
made up of assaults upon the health 
and life of man. Subtle disease, un- 
foreseen calamity, fickle temperatures, 
carking sorrow, " the arrow that flicth 
by day," and the terror that lurketh in 
the night, are God's agents ever hurt- 
ling against the citadel of life and call- 
ing aloud, " Eternity is near." Thou 
changest his countenance — Decay is 
the seal death stamps upon its victim 
in token of victory. " I am not so much 
afraid of death as ashamed thereof. 
' Tis the very disgrace and ignominy of 
our nature, that in a moment can so 
disfigure us that our nearest friends, 
wife and children, stand afraid, and 
start at us." — Sir Thomas Browne. 

21. He knoweth it not — The dead 
are ignorant of what takes place among 
the living. Compare Ecc. ix, 5, 6. The 
poet laureate has transferred to his 
page the painful thought of Job. 

His little daughter, whose sweet face 
He kissed, taking- his last embrace, 
Becomes dishonour to her race — 
His sons prow up that bear his name, 
Some grow to honour, some to shame; 
But he is chill t ■ praise or blame 

— Tennyson — Two Voice*. 

On the contrary, the religion of Con- 
fucius, which consists of the worship 
of ancestors, hinges upon the knowl- 
edge that the dead still retain of the 
living. " They are regarded as watch- 
ing with affectionate interest all the 
varied fortunes ol their progeny, and 



sons come to honour, and r he knoweth it 
not ; and they are brought low, but he 
perceiveth it not of them. 22 But his 
flesh upon him shall have pain, and his 
soul within him shall mourn. 

T CHAPTER XV. 

HEN answered Eliphaz the Teman- 



r Eccles. 9. 5 ; Isa 



3.16. 



urging them along the beaten road of 
duty to a higher and happier state of 
being." — Hardwicke, Christ, etc. This 
dogma, apparently harmless, deterio- 
rated into the dethronement of Deity 
and the worship of the dead. The 
ethics of Aristotle (i, chap, ix) read al- 
most like a comment upon our text. 
He argues that " if any thing does pierce 
the veil and reach them, it must be 
something trivial and small, either in it- 
self or to them." 

22. Upon him and within him are 
the same, (V?V,) and signify either "on 

his own account," or better, in him. 
" He no longer knows and perceives the 
things of the upper world, he is hence- 
forth conscious only of his pain and 
sorrow." — Dillmann. The repetition of 
in him is significant; as much as to 
say, flesh and soul are equally essential 
to the identity of the man. In the in- 
timation that man's condition in sheol 
is by no means one of abstract person- 
ality, we have the germ of the vastly 
expanded disclosure given xix, 26, 27, 
of a future substantial union of the two. 
Some weakly suppose that Job speaks 
of the infirmities of age ; others, (De- 
li* zsch, Umbreit, etc..) that he means the 
literal grave. According to the latter, 
Job employs a figure which attributes 
life to things inanimate. The dead body 
is regarded as suffering pain on account 
of its disconsolate, isolated condition. 
Job elsewhere speaks in like figure of 
the clods of the valley, that they shall 
be sweet to him. Chap, xxi, 33. 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Second Stage of the Controversy. 

Chaps, xv-xxi. 

Second Address of Eliphaz. 

1. Answered, etc. — Eliphaz, who 

was the first speaker in the first circle 

of debate, now urges that the talk of 

Job was not only as unprofitable as an 



112 



JOB. 



ite, and said, 2 Should a wise man 
utter \ vain knowledge, and fill his 
belly with the east wind? 3 Should he 
reason with unprofitable talk ? or with 
speeches wherewith he can do no good \ 
4 Yea, 2 thou castest off fear, and re- 

1 Heb. knowledge of wind. 2 Heb. thou 

niakest void. 

east wind, but really destructive to all 
piety. He taunts him with assuming 
a monopoly of wisdom such as could 
only have been gathered from some pri- 
or existence or from the council cham- 
ber of God. To convince Job of the fol- 
ly of his arrogance, he alludes again to 
the revelation he had himself received, 
from which Job may learn that man's 
place in the scale of righteousness is 
lower even than in that of wisdom. 
His own observation agreed with the 
sentiment of an ancient poem, that 
there is a perfect scheme of retribution 
in this world. The prosperity of the 
wicked man is only apparent. He lives 
a life of anguish; his fields are covered 
with blasted fruit ; he reaps the vanity 
he has sown. The view of Eliphaz is 
limited by the theorem that suffering- 
is an evidence either of a guilty life or 
an impure heart. 

First divisiou — Job's speeches sub- 
stantiate his guilt, 2-19. 

First strophe — His discourses are dis- 
tinguished for inane vehemence, destruc- 
tive godlessness, and low cunning, 2-6. 

2. Vain knowledge — Literally, 
windy knowledge. See note xvi, 3. 
His belly — The sense of the Hebrew 
oeten is best expressed by the Arabic, el 
battin, which signifies that which is 
within. In a mystical sense, it means 
the inmost being, in which were united, 
as Orientals believe, all the powers of 
mind, body, and spirit. East wind 
— See chap, i, 1 9. This wind was ex- 
ceedingly violent and destructive, and 
is frequently used in the prophets as 
an image of desolation and emptiness. 
4. Thou castest off — Makest void. 
Fear — The fear of God is the life of 
every form of religion. It is the key- 
stone of the arch that upholds the mor- 
als of a people, and all that is dear to 
man. Irreligiou, as the word signi- 
fies, is the unbinder ; it gradually per- 
verts the affections of the soul from 



straine-st s pi aver before God. 5 For 
thy mouth 4 uttereth thine iniquity, and 
thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. 
6 a Thine own mouth'condernneth thee, 
and not I: yea, thine own lips testify 
against tli3e. 7 Art thou the first man 



SOr, speech. 4 Hebrew, teacheth.- 

19.22. 



Luke 



the love and pursuit of tilings true, 
just, pure, and lovely ; (Phil, iv, 8 ;) it 
loosens the ties of society by removing 
the sense of responsibility to God ; in 
fine, breaks the divine bond that binds 
the yearning God to a salvable soul. 
Eliphaz charges upon Job false princi- 
ples, and reasons that these must spring 
from the neglect of religion. And re- 
strainest— Literally, lessenest. Accord- 
ing to Eliphaz. Job's theory, that God 
treats the righteous and the wicked 
alike, renders prayer unnecessary. It 
strikes a blow at the most universal 
of the institutions of religion. Not to 
pray is to do violence to nature. " The 
flow of prayer is just as natural as the 
flow of water ; the prayerless man has 
become an unnatural man." Prayer — 
Hebrew, meditation, the fruitful source 
of prayer. 

5. Uttereth- : -ypK'', (yealkph,) teacli- 

eth. Iniquity is the grammatical sub- 
ject of the sentence, which should read, 
For thine iniquity teacheth thee. Iniquity 
was his oracle — "an oracle of trans- 
gression," ]}p% D&O; (Psa. xxxvi, 2,) a 

kind of demon, in the inmost recesses of 
the heart, whispering the dialect, (the 
alephs,) the a b c's of evil. Crafty — 
'Haroum; the same word is used of the 
serpent in Gen. iii, 1. The use of this 
comparatively rare word may have 
made it an offensive echo of the pre- 
ceding thought. " Job plays the part 
of a thief, who, when accused, strives 
to criminate his accusers." — Ewald. 

Second strophe — Ironical questioning 
as to the possible modes by xohich Job had 
attained to such superior wisdom and self- 
sufficiency that he could discard divine 
consolations imparted through his friends, 
7-11. 

7. Art thou the first man — Lit- 
erally, Wast thou born the first man 1 
Art thou an Adam still alive, having 
gathered all the treasures of wisdom 



CHAPTER XV. 



113 



that was born ? b or wast thou made he- 
fore the hills ? 8 c Hast thou heard the 
secret of God? and dost thou restrain 
wisdom to thyself ? 9 d What knowest 
thou, that we know not? what under- 
standest thou, whicli is not in us ? 
10 e With us are both the grayheaded 
and very aged men, much elder than thy 
father. 1 1 *A re the consolations of God 
small with thee? is there any secret 

b Psa. 90. 2 ; Prov. 8. 25. c Rom. 11. 34 ; 

1 Cor. 2. 11. d Chap. 13. 2. e Chap. 32. G, 7. 

f'lCor. 1.3,5; 7. 6. 



— the experience of many centuries ? 
In India, Mr. Roberts tells us, a per- 
tinacious, opposer is asked, "What! 
were you born before all others?" 
"Yes, yes, he is the first man: no 
wonder he has so much wisdom." 

8. Hast thou heard — Literally, 
Hast tliou hearkened in the council of God. 
" Wast thou present at the secret coun- 
cil of God at the creation." (Targum.) 
After the manner of an Oriental mon- 
arch, God is represented as engaged in 
consultation with his counsellors upon 
important questions relative to his mor- 
al government. The intensest irony 
introduces Job as a listeuer, a kind of 
eavesdropper. 

10. The grayheaded — He proba- 
bly refers to himself. The Targum ap- 
plies the term gray-haired to Eliphaz; 
aged, to Bildad; and older, or greater 
in days, to Zophar. 

11. Consolations of God — Such 
as he and his friends administered. 
Small with thee — Too little for thee, 
great and "wise in thy own conceit." 
Is there any secret thing with thee 
— Literally, and the vjord so gentle with 
thee. (Hitzig.) Is that, also, too small for 

thee. The word DX~>, so gentle, is used 

in 1 Kings xxi, 27 of the slow gait of 
a mourner, and in Isaiah viii, 6 of the 
gentle waters of Shiloah, "that go 
softly." God's words are words of 
tenderness. The affection and the 
wisdom of God are seen in the adap- 
tation of his revelation to the heart, 
no less than to the mind, of man. 
" The Bible fits into every fold of the 
heart." It is God's book because it is, 
in the tenderest sense, man's book. 
God's yearning over man is the lesson 
of its every page. He who holds over 
Vol. V.- 9 



thing with thee? 12 Why doth thine 
heart carry thee away ? and what do thy 
eyes wink at, 13 That thou turnest thy 
spirit against God, and lettest such words 
go out of thy mouth ? 1 4 g What is man , 
that he should be clean ? and he which is 
born of a woman, that he should be right- 
eous? 15 h Behold, he putteth no trust 
in his saints ; yea, the heavens are not 
clean in his sight. 16 ' How much more 



a I Kin. 8. 46; 2 Chron. 6. 36; chap. 14. 4: Psa. 

14. 3 ; Prov. 20. 9 ; Eccles. 7. 20 ; 1 John 1. 8, 10. 

h Ch. 4. 18; 25. 5. i Ch. 4. 19; Psa. 14. 3; 53. 3. 



our world the atmosphere, like a veil, 
that the severest rays of the sun may 
be toned down, has modified his revela- 
tion to every heart ; so that the blind 
may see, the despairing take heart, the 
guilty find pardon, and the dying live. 

Third strophe — TJie fundamental er- 
ror with Job is his ignorance of the true 
character of sin, 12-16. 

12. Thy eyes — Why do thy eyes 
twinkle ? Job's impatience at the hypo- 
critical assumption of his friends must 
have manifested itself thro ugh the hash- 
ing of his eyes. 

14. Born of a woman — The words 
of Job are now turned upon him, and 
give point to the citations Eliphaz 
makes from his wonderful revelation, 
iv, 11. Job's admission "born of a 
woman," (see notexiv, 1,) justifies Eli- 
phaz in seizing again his fallen weapon 
— "Job a sinner." 

15. Saints — Holy ones. See chap. 
v, 1. The belief in a defection among 
the angels was very ancient. Thus in 
the Veda, as extracted by Sir Win. 
Jones, (vol. vi, page 418,) " But what 
are they? Others yet greater. . . . 
companies of spirits . . . have we seen 
destroyed. But what are they ? Oth- 
ers still greater have been changed — 
even the sufees, or angels, hurled from 
their stations." The heavens — The 
blue heavens, with their glittering stars, 
have ever been an emblem of purity, 
but, compared with God, they are not 
clean. Most commentators, however, 
regard the word as a trope for " the 
hosts of the heavens." But this is 
needless. 

16. How much more — Much less is 
he, the abominable and filthy man, that 
drinkejh iniquity like water. Man's pol- 
lution seems the greater by contrast. 

O. T. 



m 



JOB. 



abominable and filthy is man, k which 
drinketh iniquity like water ? 171 will 
show thee, hear me ; and that which I 
have seen I will declare: 18 Which 



Jc Chap. 34. 7 ; Prov. 19. 



Abominable — lyjlJ. Man is a being 

detestable because of his corruption. The 
original implies both. The more pure 
a nature is, the more it loathes moral 
corruption. An infinitely pure being 
regards it as infinitely abominable. 
Filthy — |"6n, to be muddy, dirty, spo- 
ken of water ; hence, to be corrupt in 
a moral sense. (Fiirst.) The word in 
the Arabic means to turn sour, as in 
the case of milk or wine. The same 
word is used in Psa. xiv, 3 ; liii, 3. 
Drinketh iniquity like water — It 
is supposed by Dr. Good that this is a 
"proverbial expression, with a direct 
allusion to the prodigious draught of 
water swallowed by a camel." A cus- 
tom connected with the Arabic dance, 
described by Burckhardt, favours this 
view. In the exclamations with which 
the men standing in line animate the 
girl w^ho dances, they do not address 
her by name, which would, accord- 
ing to Bedouin etiquette, be a breach 
of politeness, but style her "camel,", 
affecting to suppose that she advances 
toward them in search of food or 
water. This fiction is continued dur- 
ing the whole dance. "Get up, 
camel," " walk fast," " the poor camel 
is thirsty, 11 and similar expressions, are 
used on the occasion. — Notes on the 
Bedouins, i, 254. The expression of 
the text, considered from any point of 
view, indicates an exceeding fondness 
for sin. Semper nitimur in vetitum, 
"We always strive for the forbidden." 
( Ovid.) Evil takes the form of thirst. 
This thirst is abnormal — it conflicts 
with man's entire being. Its indul- 
gence only increases its power; the 
more the soul drinks of evil the more 
it demands. "In divine speech wa- 
ter is the hieroglyphic for abundance." 
— Gorderus. The soul drinks iniquity 
abundantly. Everywhere this holds 
true of man : " No one is born without 
vices." — Horace, Sat., iii, 1. Society, 
education, custom, manners, civiliza- 



wise men have told ' from their fathers, 
and have not hid it: 19 Unto whom 
alone the earth was given, and m no 
stranger passed among them. 



:Chap. 8. 



tion, may do much to disguise the dis- 
eased condition of the soul, but it is 
everywhere man's inalienable heritage, 
though the soul be, in the words "of 
Sakuntala, (Sanscrit drama,) " like a 
deep well whose mouth is covered over 
with smiling plants." 

Fourth strophe — The remarkable frag- 
ment out of the experience and wisdom of 
the ancients which Eliphaz is about to re- 
cite in confirmation of his own views as to 
the miser ableness of the wicked, he thinks is 
ivorthy of the more consideration, because 
of the purity of the race-stock by ivhom 
it has been preserved and transmitted, 
17-19. The strophe is transitional. 

19. The earth — The land. Eliphaz 
boasts, like a true Ishmaelite, that his 
ancestors had kept their land against the 
intrusion of strangers, and their blood 
free from foreign commixture. Hence 
their doctrines and faith were more 
trustworthy because unalloyed. With 
Arabs even at the present day, purity of 
blood is the highest nobility, and a guar- 
antee of superior wisdom. An unmixed 
Temanite was necessarily a wise man. 
See note ii, 11, and Deiitzsch, i, 259. 

Rosenmuller suggests that Eliphaz 
means to insinuate that Job's belief 
had been corrupted by association with 
the Chaldseans and Sabeans ; and he 
might have added the Egyptians, for 
Job makes more frequent allusions to 
their customs than to those of either 
of the others. 

Second division — The wisdom op 

PRIMITIVE AGES INCULCATED THE DI- 
VINE PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED IN 
THIS PRESENT LIFE, 20-35. 

First strophe — Notivithstanding ex- 
ternal appearances, fear and anxiety 
torment the ivicked their entire life, 20-24. 

The remainder of the chapter appears 
to be a fragment of some ancient poem. 
Clericus supposes that these maxims 
originated among the Joktanidae, or 
pure original Arabs. (The queen of 
Sheba is believed to have beeu of this 
people.) The deepest interest gathers 



CHAPTER XV. 



115 



20 &fie toiefcetr man trabailetfi 
toitft 4)atn all his Hays, n aulr tfie 
uttmoer of wears is |)itrtrcn to tfje 
oppressor, 21 5 & oreaMuI souuir 
is in fiis ears: °tn prosjieriti? tfie 
trestro»er sfiail eome tipou fiim. 
22 ?£e fieliebetfi not tfiat fie sfiali 
return out of traruness, antr fie is 
toaitetr for of tfte stoortr. 23 ?£e 
p toautreretfi aoroatr for fireatr, say- 
ing, £ffi?fiere is it? fie fcuotoetfi tfiat 



11 Psalm 90. 12. 5 Hebrew, A sound of fears. 

o 1 Thess. 5. 3. p Psa. 59. 15; 109. 10. 



about this poem, which, is evidently of 
very high antiquity. 

20. Is hidden — Rather, That are re- 
served, for the oppressor. His life is 
prolonged, but with the intention of 
punishment. Years of splendour have 
no power to allay his trouble — it lies 
deep within, where G-od and the soul 
come together. Hence the word con- 
science, which implies a second and di- 
vine party to the knowledge and pun- 
ishment of sin. In its maturest form 
the compunction of conscience becomes 
remorse, with its meaning of to bite back 
upon the soul. Eliphaz uses a figure 
common in the East when lie compares 
the gnawing of conscience to the pains 
of childbirth. In the Greek language, 
the term wickedness, (iroynpla,) in its 
root, signifies labor, misery, and the He- 
brew word for sin (jiy) means misfor- 
tune and punishment. (See note, chap, 
iii, IT.) A most remarkable letter was 
that of Tiberius Cesar, monarch of the 
world, (Luke iii, 1,) to his Senate, com- 
mencing in these words : " What to 
write you, Conscript Fathers, or in 
what manner to write, or what alto- 
gether not to write at this juncture, 
if I can determine, may all the gods and 
goddesses doom me to worse destruc- 
tion than that by which I feel myself 
consuming daily." — Tacitus, Annals. 

21. Dreadful sound — Sound of ter- 
rors. In prosperity — In (time of) 
•peace. The words of Horace (Odes, iii, 
1) are in place : Post equitem sedet atra 
cura — Behind the knight sits dark care. 

22. Darkness — Destruction is rep- 
resented by the figure of night. The 
sword— Metaphorical for the wrath of 
God. The same poet (ibid.) speaks of 



Ufie trau of traruness is reatr» at 
fiis fiantt. 24 trouble antr au= 
guisfi sfiail matte fiitn afratDr ; tfieg 
shall prebatl against fiitn, as a 
king rea&£ to tfie flattie. 25 JFor 
fie stretcftetfi out fiis ftautr against 
@foir, antr r streugtfieuetfi ftimself 
against tfte &lmight». 26 JBtz 
ruuuetfi upon fiim, even on his neefe, 
upon tfie tftiefc fiosses of fiis ouctt= 
lers : 27 s because fie coberetfi fiis 



q Chap. 18.12. r Chap. 9. 4 ; Exod. 5. 2, 3 ; 9. 17 ; 

1 Sam. 4. 7, 9; Psa. 52. 7. sPsa. 17. 10. 



the naked sword suspended over the 
impious neck of the tyrant. 

23. Where is it— n»N. This word, 

differently pointed, may signify vulture, 
(ypvTpiv, Septuagint,) which leads Merx 
to render the passage, "He wanders 
about to be the food of vultures." Bet- 
ter the text, with its outcry " where ? " 
The one touch of the pencil paints the 
confusion and despair of famine. " He 
sees himself in the mirror of the future 
reduced to beggary." — Delitzsch. The 
imagination — that faculty by which we 
form images, real or unreal — is a power- 
ful agent which God uses for the pun- 
ishment of men in this present life. 

24. Trouble and anguish — These 
are personified as leaders of a formida- 
ble force of troubles. They loom forth, 
kings armed for the battle. 

Second strophe — Titans in impiety, 
they not only rushed madly against God, 
but fattened themselves upon the ruin of 
the innocent. If their punishment be ag- 
gravated it springs from aggravated sin, 
25-30. 

2 5 . Strengthened hims elf—Boasteth 
himself. The first reason given for his 
wretched doom is his stiff-necked hos- 
tility to God. (Verses 25, 26.) "When 
all vices flee from God, pride alone op- 
poses itself to him."— Boetius. 

26. On his neck — With his neck, 
(with neck erect — Vulgate, Furst,) as a 
combatant rushes upon his adversary. 
Upon the thick bosses, etc. — The 
central and projecting part of the shield, 
winch was made thick and strong. 
The use of the word shield or buckler, 
in the plural, may denote the joining of 
shield to shield, thus forming what the 
Romans called a testudo, from the like- 



116 



JOB. 



face tottf) fits fatness, autr rnaft^ 
etfi collops of fat on Ais flanks. 
28 gtnir fie rrtoelieti) in 'tresoiate 
cities, and in houses tofticfi no man 
iufiaoitetfi, toJjief) are reatrg to oe= 
come fieaps* 29 ?^e sfiali not t>e 
rich, neither shall fiis sufcstauce 
continue, neither sfiail fie prolong 
tfie perfection tfiereof upon the 



t Chap. 3. 14. u Chap. 4. 9.- 



| Isa. 59. 4. 



ness of the linked shields to the scales 
of a tortoise. Schulleris cites an Ara- 
bic proverb, "He turns the back of his 
shield:" denoting that such a one has 
become an enemy. 

27. Maketh collops of fat on his 
flanks — Literally, he maketh (gather- 
eth) fat upon his loins. Verses 27 and 
28 contain the second reason for the 
destiny of the wicked, "his content- 
ment on the ruin of another's prosper- 
ity." — Delitzsch. The misery of others 
does not trouble him, he grows fat in 
its midst. The words are rank with 
the corruption of human nature. The 
Greeks had a word, enixatpeKuKia, 
(Aristotle, Ethics, ii, 7, 15,) which ap- 
pears also in the German, schadenfreude, 
signifying the joy which man feels 
in the sufferings of others. The text 
sets before us the anger of Heaven at 
the contemplation of a self-complacent, 
bloated sinner, "the fatness" upon 
whose "face" has been made out of 
the destruction of others — a pampered 
human spider, surrounded by his gray 
web, lined with the refuse of many a 
gory feast. Isa. v, 8 ; Hab. ii, 5, 12. 
The two rich men of whom Christ 
speaks will recur to the reader. (Luke 
xii, 18; xvi, 19.) 

28. No man inhabiteth — Literally, 
which they should not inhabit for them- 
selves. This "wicked man's" defiance 
of God is manifested, as some think, 
by his preferring to dwell in cities that 
God has cursed. Iu blasphemy he 
chooses the ruins of a Sodom, Jericho, 
Tyre, or Babylon. This impiety is the 
more conspicuous as the people of the 
East have ever shrunk from inhabiting 
places on which they believe the frown 
of God rests. The Arab at the present 
day, as Consul Wetzstein informs us, 
hurries through the city of el Hijr {Me- 



cartfi, 30 3%t si) all not depart 
out of trarfeuess; tfie flame sfiail 
trrg up his fcrauches, anir u fi£ the 
fcreath of his mouth shall he go 
atoa£» 31 2Let not him that is tre= 
cctbefcr T trust in bauttg : for bauitg 
shall he his recompense. 32 fit 
sfjail fie 6 accomplished w uefore f)is 
time, autr ijis firauch shall not fie 



iOr, cut off. - 



Chap. 22. 16 ; Psa. 55. 



dain Salih) without looking round, and 
muttering prayers, as does the great- 
throng of pilgrims to Mecca, from fear 
of incurring the punishment of God by 
the slightest delay in the accursed city. 

29. Neither shall he prolong the 
perfection, etc. — Their substance (rich- 
es — Fiirst) bendeth not to the ground. 
(Hirtzel, Stickel. etc.) The image is 
drawn from a tree whose branches 
bend with their weight of fruit. 

30. Dry up his branches — The 
figure is of a lofty tree which has been 
scathed by fire. By the breath of his 
mouth — The breath of God's mouth 
gave h im life. God breathes in his wrath 
and it gives him death — he goes avjay. 
Where ? 

Third strophe — T/ie evil in which they 
trusted is its own recompense : its chief 
characteristic — vanity, K)£^, {nothingness, 

abortion,) — is the blossom and fruit of 
their whole being, 31-35. 

The conclusion which Eliphaz means 
Job should draw is — all the godless are 
miserable, therefore the most miserable 
(Job) are the most godless. 

31. Let him not trust in evil; he is 
deceived, for evil shall be his reward. 
{Conant and most moderns.) Recom- 
pense — Literally, exchange. The word 
translated vanity signifies also evil, or 
sin and destruction. For sin the wicked 
man gets destruction. Let him not be 
deceived, for this is the exchange he 
makes. Gal. vi, 7. 

32. Accomplished before his time 
— Literally, In not his day it (the 
exchange) is fulfilled. The wicked 
man dies prematurely. The day lie 
dies " is not his appointed day." — Dill- 
mann, Hirtzel. See note, chap, xiv, 5. 
Compare Psa. lv, 23. Branch — The top 
branch (of the palm.) 



CHAPTER XV. 



117 



ffrcnt. 33 ?£? sfjall x sfjaite off fjts 
unripe grape as tfje bine, anir sijall 
east off fjis flotoer as tfie oltbe. 
34 jfor y tfje congregation of f)»p= 
oerites shall be iresolatc, anlr ffre 
sfjali consume tfje taoeruacles of 
nrtuern. 35 z £fjei? eoueeibe mis= 
eijief, anlr firing forti) ' banttn, anlr 
tfjeir oellu ureuaretfi ireeelt. 



x Isa. 33. 9. y Isa. 33. 14. - — z Psa. 7. 14 ; Isa. 

59. 4; HosealO. 13. 7 Or, iniquity. 

33. Oast off his flower as the olive 

— "The olive is the most prodigal of 
all fruit-bearing trees in flowers. It 
literally bends under the load of them. 
But then not one in a hundred comes to 
maturity. The tree casts them off by 
millions, as if they were of no more value 
than flakes of snow, which they closely 
resemble. So it will be with those who 
trust in vanity." — Land and Book, i, 72. 

34. The congregation of hypo- 
crites — The household of the impure. 
Desolate — The tigureisof a rock, hard 
and barren. Fire is often employed 
in the Bible for the wrath of God. 

35. Deceit — This word is but the 
refrain of the entire address of Eliphaz 
— Job is self-deceived. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Job's Fourth Reply. Chaps, xvi, xvii. 
1. Job answered and said — He 

replies to their heartless speeches, that 
there is a vast difference between the 
condition of a sufferer and that of his 
upbraiders. Their windy words have 
left his grief unassuaged. The conflict 
rages sore around him. His friends are 
not his sole antagonists : his startled 
soul sees on all sides a glaring throng 
of fiendish foes, into whose power God 
has cast him headlong. In every form 
of assault known to warfare the Divine 
Being has attacked him, until, (so he 
imagines,) crushed and wounded, he 
lies weltering in his own blood. The 
darkest hour, however, is one of hope. 
The blood of the innocent has power 
with God. Job's faith, like that of 
Abel, is glorified in the juncture of ex- 
treme distress. It rises to the certainty 
that the God who is in the heights sees 
and feels his woes, and, conscious of 
this divine sympathy, he ventures to 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THEN Job answered and said, 2 1 have 
heard many such things : 1 ' mis- 
erable comforters are ye ali. 3 Shall 
2 vain words have an end? or what em- 
boldeneth thee that thou answerest ? 
4 I also could speak as ye do : if your 
soul were in my soul's stead, I could 
heap up words against you, and b shake 

1 Or. troublesome. a Chap. 13. 4. 2 Heb. 

words of wind. b Psa. 109. 25 ; Lam. 2. 15. 



supplicate God himself, to plead with 
God in his behalf (ch. xvii). With the 
grave beneath his feet, he prays for a 
mediator. He makes the amazing ap- 
peal to God to be his sponsor or bonds- 
man with God. He has faith to be- 
lieve that his sufferings shall not iujure 
the cause of virtue. " A bitter feeling 
at the behaviour of his friends extends 
itself like a red thread throughout the 
entire aiscourse." — Hitzig. See verses 
10, 20; xvii, 2, 4, 10, 12. 

Exordium, or introductory strophe — 
Job repudiates the commonplace, cheap, 
and heartless consolation of his friends, 
2-5. 

2. Miserable comforters — Liter- 
ally, Comforters of trouble: sorrow-bring- 
ing comforters. The Hebrew shows an 
allusion to xv, 11, " the consolations of 
God." Kindred experience, keenness 
of sensibility, a consciousness of our 
own liabilities, sincerity of heart and 
purity of being, are elements essential 
to the exercise of the fullest power of 
sympathy. As sin gains power over a 
man it lessens his sympathy for the 
woes of others — for sin means selfish- 
ness — living for self. Cold words are a 
mockery to a sorrowing heart. They 
are flakes of snow to an ice-bound pool. 
"Profound sympathies are always in as- 
sociation with keen sensibilities." The 
comforter must feel his own liability 
to overwhelming distress. 

3. Vain words — Windy words. Like 
expressions abound in the classics. 
" Windy glory," (Virgil ;) " Windy peo- 
ple," (Horace.) A retort upon Eliphaz 
for his taunting words, " windy knowl- 
edge," xv, 2, margin. 

4. Heap up words — Knit together 
words. The ministry of words is noth- 
ing without the ministry of the heart. 



118 



JOB. 



mine head at you. 5 But I would 
strengthen you with my mouth, and the 
moving of my lips should assuage your 
grief. 

6 Though I speak, my grief is not 
assuaged : and though I forbear, 3 what 
am I eased? 7 But now he hath made 
me weary : thou hast made desolate all 
my company. 8 And thou hast filled 
me with wrinkles, which is a witness 

3 Heb. what goeth from me t c Isa. 24. 16. 

rfChap. 10. 16, 17. e Chap. 13. 24. — /Psa. 

22. 13. 

First division — A high- wrought 

DESCRIPTION OF JOB'S SORROWS, DE- 
SERTED AND PERSECUTED BY GrOD, AND 
PREYED UPON BY FRIENDS, 6-17. 

First strophe — Destitute of friends in 
God or man, he is forced back upon Ms 
own lamentable condition to feel that even 
his disease bears false witness against him, 
leading God to give him over into the 
power of his enemies, who gather around 
him like beasts of prey, 6-11. 

6. Though — If. He communes with 
himself as to whether he will continue 
the colloquy further. To speak or not 
to speak is all one, so far as consolation 
is concerned. What am I eased — 
Literally, what goes forth from mef that 
is, lis grief does not depart. 

7. Made me weary — Wearied me 
out. Company — Household. Same 
word as Eliphaz uses, xv, 34. 

8. Filled me with wrinkles —Seized 
hold of me. The word kamat, in the 
Arabic, signifies to tie the hands and the 
feet; also, to bind a captive. (Schultens.) 
Job is bound with the "fetters" of 
disease, xiii, 27. These, like the fetters 
of a captive, may be misinterpreted into 
evidences of guilt, x, 17. G-rotius, how- 
ever, remarks that it is a judicial term, 
signifying "to bring into court as it 
were by the neck." The rendering in 
the text is defended by some critics. 
Which is a witness — It is become a 
witness. His friends have perverted 
his afflictions into witnesses against him. 
My leanness — i{J>rDi which also signi- 
fies my "lie," " deceit;" a metaphor simi- 
lar to that of a dried-up brook, which 
" deals falsely," vi,15. His " emaciation" 
is in like manner "a false witness." Hit- 
zig finds in the Arabic a signification 
of " impotence in the hands and feet," 



against me : and my c leanness rising up 
in me beareth witness to my face. 9 d He 
teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me : 
he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; 
e mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes up- 
on me. 10 They have f gaped upon 
me with their mouth ; they g have smit- 
ten me upon the cheek reproachfully ; 
they have h gathered themselves togeth- 
er against me. 1 1 God i 4 hath delivered 



g Lamentations 3. 30 : Micah 5. 1. h Psalm 

35. 15. i Chapter 1. 15, 17. 4 Heb. hath shut 

me up. 



corresponding to the word kamat, which 
Job had used just before. Rising up 
in me, etc. — Biseth up against me, in 
order to bear witness against him. 

9. He teareth — His anger teareth me 
and warreth against me. If Job ascribe 
his treatment to God, (verses 9-14,) his 
language transcends all bounds of rea- 
son ; but if, on the contrary, he speaks 
of the malice of evil spirits to whose 
power he has been for a time delwered, 
it is nothing more than what might be 
expected from their diabolical nature, 
which is best imaged in the wildness 
and cruelty of the brute creation. Ras- 
chi, Cocceius, Adam Clarke, Tayler Lew- 
is, and others, think that Job speaks 
here of Satan witli his mocking fiends. 
Gnasheth . . . with his teeth — Such 
expressions appear often in the classics. 
Sharpeneth his eyes — An expression 
still in use in the East. The eye is here 
compared to a sword, or, as others sup- 
pose, to the fierce, fascinating gaze of 
the lion as he is about to pounce upon 
his prey. 

10. They have gaped upon me — 
As in many other instances, the subject 
of the sentence is left unexpressed. The 
thought is thus rendered more solemn 
and emphatic. See note on Psa. xxii, 13 ; 
also Luke vi, 38—" Shall they give." 
The text speaks of a company of fiends, 
whether human or diabolic, who crowd 
around the sufferer jeering and maltreat- 
ing him. The description bears a strik- 
ing resemblance to that given of Christ, 
who in many respects was the antitype 
of Job. (Psa. xxii.) Smitten me upon 
the cheek — " To smite the cheek is the 
deepest insult that can be offered to an 
Asiatic." — Lord Valentia. 

11. Delivered — Hurled, cast head- 



CHAPTER XVI. 



119 



me to the ungodly, and turned me over 
into the hands of the wicked. 12 I 
was at ease, but he hath broken me 
asunder: ho hath also taken me by my 
neck, and shaken me to pieces, and k set 
me up for his mark. 13 His archers 
compass me round about, he cleaveth 
my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; 
he ' poureth out my gall upon the ground. 



k Chap. 7. 20. ZChap. 20. 25 ; Lam. 2. 11. 



long. The ungodly — y\y, the evil one, 

6 irovnpoc, Matt, xiii, 1 9. The word is in 
the singular number, and seems to de- 
note the same being of whom mention 
is made in chaps, i, ii. 

Second strophe— Notwithstanding Job's 
life of purity, God has maltreated and per- 
secuted him even unto death, 12-17. 

12. I was at ease — Our ungrateful 
nature has only a word, 1^2>, "at ease," 

for years of prosperity, but dwells at 
length upon months of affliction. By 
my neck — As a beast does his prey. 

13. My reins— The kidneys. "The 
Scriptures bring the tenderest and the 
most inward experience of a manifold 
kind into association with them." — De- 
LITZSCH, Bib. Psychology, pp. 317-319. 
Here, in strong figurative language, cut- 
ting affliction cleaves the kidneys asun- 
der; language akin to that of our own, 
" a broken heart." The psalmist suppli- 
cates God to try his reins and his heart, 
(xxvi, 2.) The ancients said the reins 
give counsel, but the heart carries it 
into execution. My gall upon the 
ground — Used figuratively; the He- 
brew doctors understand it literally, and 
say that Job was sustained in being by 
a miracle. 

14. Breach upon breach — In the 
preceding verse the human body was 
compared to a target pierced through 
and through with arrows ; it is now 
compared to a citadel of strength which 
the besiegers have breached again and 
again. Giant — Warrior. 

15. Sackcloth — This cloth was of a 
coarse texture, generally of goat's hair 
of a dark colour, with armholes, and 
shaped like a sack. It was commonly 
worn over the coat, in place of an outer 
garment, and thus served as a symbol 
of distress ; but in extreme cases it was 
worn next to the skin, (2 Kings vi, 30,) 



14 He breaketh me with breach up- 
on breach ; he runneth upon me like 
a giant. 15 I have sewed sackcloth 
upon my skin, and m defiled my horn 
in the dust. 16 My face is foul with 
weeping, and on my eyelids is the 
shadow of death ; 1 7 Not for any in- 
justice in mine hands : also u my prayer 
is pure. 



mChap. 30. 19; Psa. 7. 5. n\ Tim. 2. 8. 




having been sewed tightly upon it, "like 
crape upon a hat." — Barnes. Dr. Good 
cites from Menander, the Greekpoet: — 

— Following the Syrian plan 
They then wear sackcloth, and by the public 

road 
Sit upon a dunghill, erci tconpov, in humblest 

guise, 
Appeasing thus the Deity's dread ire. 

See note, ii, 8. My horn in the dust — 

The horn, the defence and adornment 
of many animals, has ever been regard- 
ed in the East as a symbol of strength 
and dignity. Job's degradation might 
well be compared to that of some no- 
ble animal ly- 
ing dead, with 
its horn thrust 
('holalti) into 
the dust. Some 
think Job here 
speaks of the 
head, which it Homed caps of the Assyrian 
was customary ' es ' 

to cover with dust in times of afflic- 
tion ; with which agrees the Syriac ren- 
dering of my head. 

16. Foul with weeping — Inflamed 
by the heat of the tears. Shadow of 
death — The Iliad frequently has the 
expression, " The cloud of death sur- 
rounds his eyes." 

17. Not for injustice — The He- 
brew is the same as in Isaiah liii, 9, 
where the words are spoken of Christ. 
Read, Though there be no violence in my 
hands. 

Second division — Job's hope is in - 
the Godhead — the God wno sees his 

GRIEFS SHALL TREAT WITH GOD IN HIS 

behalf, verse 18-xvii, 9. 

First strophe — God, the ivitness of the 
innocent blood which his own wrath hath, 
sited, cannot butpkad with God for justice. 
though man, the victim, be in the article of 
death. Verse 18-xvii, 2. 



120 



JOB. 



18 earth, cover not thou my blood, 
and ° let my cry have no place. 19 Also 
now, behold, p my witness is in heaven, 
and my record is 5 on high. 20 My 

o Chap. 27. 9 ; Psa. 66. 18, 19. p Rom. 1. 9. 

5 Heb. in the high places. 6 Heb. are my 

Job's faith again appeals from G-od 
as he seems, to God as he must be. 

18. Cover not thou my blood — 
He speaks of his sufferings under the 
figure of blood that has been wrongfully 
shed. "Blood," says Grotius, "denotes 
every kind of immature death." The 
ancients attributed to blood, unjustly 
shed, a cry that excited God to ven- 
geance ; an opinion which may have 
sprung from the case of Abel, Gen.iv,10. 
"When the earth covers the blood of 
the slain it seems to cloak injury." — 
Drusius. See also Isa. xxvi, 2 1 ; Ezek. 
xxiv, 7, 8. The Arabs say the dew of 
heaven will not descend upon a spot 
watered with innocent blood; and their 
poets fancy that the poison of asps dis- 
tils from the dead body of the slain, 
and continues to do so till he is avenged, 
that is, sprinkled with fresh blood. (See 
Herder, Heb. Poetry, i, 195.) Job will 
have nothing to do with a human goel; 
he transfers his cause to a divine being 
(xix, 25) who he believes will -finally 
avenge his blood. No place — In sense 
of resting place. 

19. Record— in^, attestor. Schul- 

tens and Lee derive from the Arabic a 
meaning of eyewitness. The Septuagint 
renders it joint witness — Y>vvlGTup. The 
translation of Cranmer, "and He that 
knoweth me is above in the height," ac- 
cords with that of Luther. The witness 
is plainly not documentary, (record,) 
but a person. 

20. My friends scorn me — ^70 

>y~l is almost invariably rendered, My 

scorners are my friends. But the word 
melits, in its root, signifies not only to 
"mock," but "to speak in a foreign 
tongue," (Gesenius,) whence the mean- 
ing of interpreter, intercessor, which is 
the rendering it bears in the other 
places where it occurs, (Gen. xlii, 23 ; 
2 Chron. xxxii, 31 margin; Job xxxiii, 
23, and Isa. xliii, 27 margin;) also in 
the Targum peralclit, "advocate." This 



friends 6 scorn me: hut mine eye pour- 
eth out tears unto God. 21 q Oh that 
one might plead for a man with God, 
as a man pleadeth for his 7 neighbour ! 



scorners. g Chap. 31. 35 ; Eccles: 6. 10 ; Isa. 

45. 9 ;. Rom. 9. 20. 7 Or, friend. 



leads Arnheim, Carey, and Prof. Lee to 
read it, "My interpreter is my friend," 
and to argue, not so reasonably, that 
it refers to the promised mediator. To 
the objection that both words are in the 
plural, it is replied that this is an in- 
stance of the plural of majesty — the 
use of a word in the plural to express 
the idea of exaltation — as in Isa. liv, 5, 
" Thy Maker is thy husband," where 
both words also are plural. The ever- 
ready assumption that the context de- 
mands "scorners" is not altogether 
satisfactory. 

21. Oh that one might plead — 
Better, that He ( God) would plead for 
man with God, as a son of man for his 
fellow. fDVl, weyokahh, argue, plead, 

is rendered by Schlottmann, Ewald, and 
others, do justice ; by Delitzsch, decide ; 
by "Wordsworth, Carey, etc., plead. See 
note ix, 33. The German mind has 
caught a glimmering view, as " through 
a glass, darkly," of the blessed pur- 
port 'of this passage, thus : " God is re- 
garded as a twofold person, an adver- 
sary, and at the same time an umpire ;" 
(Hirtzel;) and "Job appeals from God 
to God." (Delitzsch.) "With melancholy 
quaintness [//] Job says, God must sup- 
port me against God."— Umbreit. Melan- 
choly there may be, but there is nothing 
quaint in human needs ; for they are as 
deep as the soul and old as fallen man. 
Job's burdened soul was not the first that 
has poured itself forth in sighs that God 
might plead with God in its behalf. In 
the falling tears of Job, germinant with 
words of hope, faith sees the bow of 
promise — an indirect prophecy of that 
advocacy which in after times was re- 
vealed as existing in Christ. The grand 
essential features of the Christian 
scheme are here in outline — man's need 
of a superhuman mediator — that this 
mediator must be coequal with God — 
and that our hope of mediation is in the 
Godhead itself— all based upon the pos- 
tulate which appeals to the universal 



CHAPTER XVir. 



121 



22 When 8 a few years are come, then 
[ shall r go the way whence I shall not 
return. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

MY » breath is corrupt, my days are 
extinct, a the graves are ready for 
me. 2 Are there not mockers with me \ 
and doth not mine eye 2 continue in their 



8 Hebrew, years of number. 
1 Or, spirit is spent. 



— ?»Eccles. 12. 
Psa.88. 3, 4. 



heart, that kindred nature is vital to 
successful mediation : "Asa son of man 
pleads for his fellow. 11 

22. Pew years — Literally, years of 
number. His life he conceives is now 
near its end ; its few years are past, and 
soon he shall go the way from which 
"no traveller returns." 

CHAPTER XVII. 
1. Now follow short ejaculatory 
clauses in which "Job chants his own 
requiem," (Delitzsch,) reminding the 
reader of the requiem chanted by Mo- 
zart shortly before his death. My 
breath is corrupt — Literally, My life 
(rouahh) is destroyed. Some still read 
as in the text. The graves — The 
Arabians, according to Schultens, fre- 
quently use " graves " for the grave. 
Around the sides of the tomb of the an- 
cient Hebrew there were cells for the 
reception of sarcophagi containing the 
bodies of the dead. To such cells Job 
may refer. 

2. Mockers — Surely mockers are with 
me, and on their quarrelling mine eye 
dwells. Notwithstanding the grave is 
all that remains for Job, (verse 1,) his 
quasi friends mock him with promissory 
illusions of long life, and embitter his 
existence with janglings night aud day 
so that his eye can rest on nothing else. 
Continue — Hebrew, Pass the night. 

Second strophe — Tnal God alone will, 
or can, guarantee the righteous adjudica- 
tion of Job's cause, is evident from the blind 
and unprincipled conduct of his represent- 
ative friends ; and that God should do this 
is urged by Job's own outrageous sufferings, 
and by the injury that would otherwise 
result to the cause of virtue His prayer 

STILL IS FOR A MEDIATOR, 3-9. 

3. Lay down — r\iy\y. " A pledge " is 

evidently understood ; some kind of se- 
curity like that which binds a bargain. 



b provocation ? 3 Lay down now, put 
me in a surety with thee ; who is he that 
c will strike hands with me? 4 For 
thou hast hid their heart from under- 
standing : therefore shalt thou not exalt 
them. 5 He that speaketh flattery to 
his friends, even the eyes of his children 
shall fail. 6 He hath made me also d a 

2 Heb. lodge. b 1 Sam. 1. (i, 7. — -c Prov. 6. 1 ; 

17. 18 ; 22. 2ii. d Chap. 30. 9. 

The clause reads, Lay down, (a pledge.) 
I pray. Put me in a surety — Bet- 
ter, Be thou my surety with thee. 21)}, 

'harab, signifies to pledge one's self for 
another, and by implication protect or 
deliver. Comp. Genesis xliii, 9 ; Psa. 
cxix, 122; Isa. xxxviii, 14; (undertake 
forme.) In chap, xvi, 21, Job speaks 
of God in a twofold character : also 
here, "as a judge and He who gives 
security before the judge." — Olshausen. 
The security became liable for his 
client'^ debts in case he failed. Strike 
hands, etc. — The custom of ratifying 
compacts by the joining or striking to- 
gether of hands prevailed quite univer- 
sally in ancient times. Prov. vi, 1. The 
' ' surety ' ' struck hands with the party he 
represented, "for Solomon warns his son 
against giving his hand to a stranger, 
that is, against being surety for a per- 
son unknown." — Michaelis, Laws of 
Moses, ii, 323. Ewald takes an erro- 
neous view, that " the debtor and surety 
gave the hand to the creditor," (Alt, S. 
165,) whereas the surety joined hands 
with the debtor. (Dillmann, etc.) Job's 
prayer. " Be thou my surety with thee, 11 
is urged by the momentous considera- 
tion, Who is he? who can be my surety 
if not thou ? If man have hope at all, 
it must come from the Godhead. Christ, 
the Son of God, strikes hands with 
man, assumes his nature, becomes his 
surety. The prayer of Job became won- 
derfully prophetic. 

4. For — None but God can " under- 
take " for him ! His purblind friends 
certainly cannot. Not exalt them — 
above me. Thou wilt not let them pre- 
vail. 

5/ He . . .friends — The common read- 
ing is, He ivho betrays friends for a spoil. 
Flattery — Hhelck, signifies a share of 
spoil. The spoil which the treacherous 
gain proves a curse to their children. 



122 



JOB. 



byword of the people ; and 3 aforetime I 
was as a tabret. 7 e Mine eye also is 
dim by reason of sorrow, and all 4 my 
members are as a shadow. 8 Upright 
men shall be astonished at this, and the 
innocent shall stir up himself against 



3 Or, before them. e Psa. 6 

4 Or, my thoughts. 



Hitzig unites the verse with the pre- 
ceding, thus: Exalt not "him who in- 
vites friends to a feast (tsum Theilen) 
while the eyes of his children fail." 
Comp. xi, 20. He is profuse in his hos- 
pitality, while his children have noth- 
ing to eat. Job's friends rejoice in a 
superabundance of wisdom for others, 
but have none for themselves. The 
well-timed thrust for which — though he 
had to overleap the lists of continuous 
thought — Job was always ready, as- 
sorts well with the preceding verse. 
The verse, however, looks like a pro- 
verbial saying whose exact meaning 
has been lost. 

6. Aforetime I was as a tabret — 
Literally, lam become a spitting upon the 
face ; that is, one into whose face they 
(the people) spit. Tabret — Hebrew, 
topheth. Its meaning is determined by 
kindred dialects — for instance, the Ara- 
bic Saffafa, to spit with contempt. The 
valley of Topheth was a vaUey of abomi- 
nation. Job's treatment in this respect 
resembled that of his divine antitype. 

7. Eye also is dim — Dimness of 
the eye is a figure frequently employed 
in Scripture to indicate the effects of 
grief, or of advanced age. As a shad- 
ow. See note chap, vhi, 9. 

8. The hypocrite — Tlie impure. 
To the righteous, the permitted suffer- 
ings of the just man at the hands of the 
unjust present a dark feature of the 
divine economy. The Church in all 
ages has been baptized with blood. All 
life of appreciable worth begins and 
matures through suffering, and the 
higher spiritual life is not excepted. 
According to the value of the life is the 
fierceness of the sorrow that accompa- 
nies it into being — a thought that holds 
good with respect to the highest saints 
in heaven. (Rev. vii, 13-15.) The di- 
vine will that spares not the Son of God, 
subjects to kindred suffering those in 
whom he is most deeply interested. 



the hypocrite. 9 The righteous also 
shall hold on his way, and lie that hath 
f clean hands 5 shall be stronger and 
stronger. 

10 But as for you all, s do ye return, 
and come now : for I cannot find one 



/Psa. 24. 4. 5 Heb. shall add strength. 

g Chap. 6. 29. 



9. Hold on — Lay fast hold of . Clean 
hands — The hand was no less the sym- 
bol of human action than of power and 
strength : clean hands represented pu- 
rity of action. Be stronger and strong- 
er — Margin, Shall add strength. A pure 
life is a source of strength to man's en- 
tire being. Body, mind, soul, ah testify 
to its reflex influence. Laws of habit 
unite with laws of grace to assure the 
good man that he shall ever " renew 
his strength." (Isa. xl, 31.) Affliction 
facilitates soul-growth. God makes it 
the touchstone of spiritual strength. The 
fierce blast either uproots or strength- 
ens the tree. The storm passes by, and 
the pious soul has struck deeper its 
roots into that which is eternal. " It is 
said of the Lacedemonian republic, that 
whereas all other States were undone by 
war, Sparta alone grew rich and was 
bettered by it ; and we may say, that 
whereas all hypocrites and worldly men 
are undone by affliction, true believers 
thrive under it." (Kitto, Bib. lllus. inloc.) 

Third division — Job resumes the 
requiem (verse 11) which at verse 2 
WAS interrupted by the supplica- 
tion TnAT God should mediate w r iTH 
God, 10-16. 

The main thought of the elegy is 
the destruction of all hope for this life. 
This, as Ewald intimates, leads Job to 
look for justice beyond death; to seek in 
another life the fruitage of faith, hope, 
and charity. Job evidently reasons 
up to an eternal and immutable justice, 
from the framework of his moral being, 
which now resounds with testimonies 
to the purity of bis conscience, inspiring 
him with the conviction that God would 
be his surety. This enables Job to tri- 
umph over sheol. 

10. Return. ..now — "The friends of 
Job, irritated by his vehement words, 
threaten to retire." — Renan. He chal- 
lenges his retreating friends to con- 
tinue the argument, at least to hear 



CHAPTER XVII. 



123 



wise man among you. 1 1 h My days are 
past, my purposes are broken off, even 
6 the thoughts of my heart. 12 They 
change the night into day : the light is 
'short because of darkness. 13 If I 
wait, the grave is mine house: I have 



Chap. 7. 6 ; 9. 25. 



Heb. the possessions. 



what he has to say, in the meantime re- 
minding them of the little understanding 
they have thus far displayed. (Ter. 4.) 
For — Nevertheless. 

11. My days are past — The want 
of wisdom Job has just spoken of, the 
friends have shown in their glowing 
promises of future worldly bliss pro- 
vided he will repent; that, too, while 
he has both feet in the grave. The 
thought serves as a transition to the 
elegy renewed in this verse. Thoughts 
— ^BniQ, possessions, or treasures. Zock- 

ler calls them the wards, or nurslings, 
of the heart. The term comprehends 
thought, hope, purpose, affection — all 
the furniture of the soul. 

12. Night into day— Literally, they 
put night for the day — That is, day hath 
become night to me. ^B^ is used im- 
personally. Conant's rendering, " Night 
is joined to day," is not sustained. The 
light is short. — Among the various 
readings is that of Halm and Zockler : 
" Light is near in the presence of dark- 
ness : " that is, such is the representa- 
tion made by the friends when really 
there is nothing but darkness. Dill- 
mann and Ewald make |Q a compara- 
tive, nearer than — a feeble and inconse- 
quential thought. The reading of Heng- 
stenberg. the light is near to darkness, 
which substantially agrees with that of 
Eva us, is decidedly to be preferred. The 
light of my life is near the darkness of 
death. The Latin language, like the Ar- 
abic, has a similar construction to ex- 
press " nearness from " — prope abesse a. 
The full development of this thought, 
says Wordsworth, (following the first 
reading above,) is found in the sublime 
speech of the Christian martyr Saint Ig- 
natius, on the eve of suffering, to his 
friends who persuaded him to sue for a 
prolongation of life: "My birth is at hand. 
0, my friends, do not hinder me from liv- 
ing. Do not desire that I should die. Let 



made my bed in the darkness. 14 I 
have *said to corruption, Thou art my 
father : to the worm, Thou art my 
mother, and my sister. 15 And where 
is now my hope I as for my hope, who 
shall see it? 16 They shall go down 



7 Heb. near. 8 Heb. cried, or, called. 



me have a sight of that pure light. Let 
me have a sunset to the world, that I 
may have a sunrise to God." 

13. If I wait — Lo, I wait my abode, 
(sheol.) House — The ancient Egyptians 
designated the tomb as their house. 
(See note hi, 15.) Made my bed 
— Spread my couch. Aristobulus saw 
in the tomb of Cyrus a golden couch, 
a table with cups, a golden coffin, 
and a large quantity of garments or- 
namented with precious stones. (Sirabo, 
xv, chap, hi, 7.) 

14. Said— Called, The thought of 
his mouldering body suggested a family 
likeness to the corruption of the grave. 
My father — The Oriental languages 
abound in like comparisons. The Ara- 
bians call Satan the father of bitter- 
ness ; a husband, the father of a 
woman ; rain, the father of life ; the 
stomach, mother of food; the via lac- 
tea, mother of heaven ; wine, mother of 
evils; and death, the mother of vul- 
tures. ( Golius'Lex.) Among the touching 
incidents connected with the burial of 
a Bedawi is an address of the friends 
to the deceased as he lies in the grave. 
" When the twain Green Angels shall 
question and examine thee, say, 'The 
feaster makes merry, the wolf prowls, 
and man's lot is still the same ; but I 
have done with all these things. The 
sidr-tree is thy aunt, and the palm-tree 
thy mother.' " — Palmer, Desert of the 
Exodus, i, 94. Diodorus, Archbishop 
of Cappadocia, requested that one word 
should be inscribed on his tombstone — 
acarus — which means a worm — and it 
was done. (Victor Kxjgo, Les Miserables.) 

1 6. They — Better, It shall go doom to 
the bars of sheol. The verb is not plural, 
but a poetical form of the singular. Its 
subject is, the hope of renewed prosper- 
ity with which Job's friends had flat- 
tered him. Bars is preferable to soli- 
tudes, as rendered by Eifrst and Schnur- 
rer, and is used figuratively for the 
gates of sheol; (Job xxxviii, 17 ; Psa. 



124 



JOB. 



1 to the bars of the pit, when our k rest 
together is in the dust. 

CHAPTEK XVIII. 

THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite, 
and said, 2 How long will it be 
ere ye make an end of words ? mark, and 



* Chapter 18. 13. k Chapter 3. 17-19. a Psa. 

73. 22. 

ix, 13; cvii, 18; Isa. xxxviii, 10.) The 
shadowy bars kept the gates, so that 
those who entered could not return. 
The Iliad (xxiii, 74) calls sheol "the 
house of wide gates," whose width 
pointed to the multitudes who were 
constantly entering. Rest. ..in the 
dust — Literally, when together there is 
rest in the dust. Eurst would render Rest 
"descent," with the meaning, "Yea, 
we shall descend together into the 
dust; " that is, my hope and I shall be 
buried together. Among the many pro- 
posed readings of this clause, that of the 
Authorized Version is to be preferred. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Bildad's Second Reply. 

1, Then answered Bildad — The 

wicked man, inflated with vanity, may 
rage like a wild beast, but nature will 
keep on in her course. God, however, 
does not forget or neglect him, as is 
evident in the extinction of the lamp 
within his home and in the many snares 
laid for his ruin. Bildad proceeds to 
paint the doom of a miserable sinner — 
his darkest colours he draws out of the 
misfortunes of Job. That doom is in- 
evitable, full of terror, overwhelming. 
Heaven fights against him with its 
fires, destroys his children, crushes all 
hope, chases him into the outer dark- 
ness, and sets him as a monument of per- 
petual desolation. " The description is 
terribly brilliant, solemn, and pathetic, 
as becomes the stern preacher of re- 
pentance, with haughty mien and phar- 
isaic self-confidence, ... a masterpiece 
of the poet's skill in poetic idealizing." 
— Delitzsch. 

Introduction. Bildad retorts Job's 
charges of folly by comparing him to a 
self-devouring brute, who in his madness 
would unsettle the eternal principles of 
God's moral government, 2-4. 

2. An end of words — IIoio long 



afterwards we will speak. 3 Wherefore 
are we counted a as beasts, and reputed 
vile in your sight? 4 b He teareth 
1 himself in his anger: shall the earth 
be forsaken for thee ? and shall the rock 
be removed out of his place ? 
5 Yea, c the light of the wicked shall 



Chap. 13. 14. 1 Heb. Ms soul. c Proverbs 

13. 9 ; 20. 20 ; 24. 20. 



will ye set snares for words ? We have 
a like phrase, " hunt for words." His 
former speech commenced (viii, 2) with 
a similar outburst of impatience, and in 
the same words, " how long." 

3. As beasts — Only by implication, 
xii, V, 8 ; xvii, 4. Vile— Stupid. 

4. He (meaning Job) teareth him- 
self — Of a terrible nondescript wild 
beast, "the strongest of all others," 
Diodorus Siculus, (iii, ch. 2,) says, "if 
he fall into a pit, or be taken any other 
way by snares or gins laid for him, he 
chokes and stifles himself with his un- 
ruly rage." Shall the earth, etc. — 
When the Orientals would reprove the 
pride or arrogance of any person, it is 
common to taunt him with such apo- 
thegms as, " What though Mohammed 
were dead ! his imaums (ministers) con- 
ducted the affairs of the nation; the 
universe shall not fall for his sake. 
The world does not subsist for one man 
alone." — Lowth, Lee. 34. Forsaken 
for thee — In the sense of being depop- 
ulated. Lev. xxvi, 43. The rock be 
removed, etc. — A literal citation from 
Job xiv, 18. Art thou of so much con- 
sequence that the most stable things of 
nature shall move because of thee ? 
Or, for love of thee shall the founda- 
tions of the moral world be upheaved ? 
Such must be Job's expectations if he 
deny the unfailing connexion of sin 
and retribution. If so, Job must be 
one of heaven's fondlings. The sneer 
of Pope as to "the loose mountain," 
etc., is a reproduction of Bildad. 

The divine order of the world is 
displayed in the inevitable punish- 
ment of incorrigible sinners, 5-21. 

Hengstenberg divides the section into 
a Heptade, 5-11 ; and a Decade, 12-21. 

All things — nets, pitfalls, gins, nooses, 
snares, and traps — conspire to carry into 
effect the law of retribution established by 
God, 5-11. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



125 



be put out, and the spark of his fire 
shall not shine. 6 The light shall be 
dark in his tabernacle, d and" his 2 candle 
shall be put out with him. 7 The steps 
of his strength shall be straitened, 
and e his own counsel shall cast him 
down. 8 For f he is cast into a net by 
his own feet, and he walketh upon a 



d Chap. 21. 17 ; Psa. 18. 28. 2 Or, lamp- 

eChap. 5. 13. — -/Chap. 22. 10; Psa. 9. 15; 35. 
g Chap. 5. 5. 



5. The spark, etc. — The flame of his 
fire. There may be an allusion to the 
fires of hospitality which the wealthy 
Arabs were wont to light upon the tops 
of hills, to direct travellers to their 
houses for entertainment. An Arabi- 
an poet, cited by Scott, thus expresses 
the permanent prosperity of his family: 
'• Neither is our fire, lighted for the ben- 
efit of the night stranger, extinguished." 
The flame of fire is a common Oriental 
figure for splendid fortune. The ex- 
tinction of the one implied that of the 
other. 

6. His candle — The lamp above him 
shall be put out. The lamp suspended 

in the tent was 
kept burning all 
night. The poor- 
est would rather 
dispense w r ith part 
of their food than 
with a night lamp. 
The custom still 
prevails in Aleppo 
and Egypt. Schul- 
tens cites a com- 
mon saying of the 
Arab, — "Misfor- 
tune has put out my lamp." Hitzig 
does violence to the passage when he 
renders \>?V with him, on the supposi- 
tion that the torch (lamp) is one that 
the wicked carries with himself in his 
wanderings by night. The following 
verses, he says, would then describe 
the disastrous consequences of its ex- 
tinction. 

7. The steps of his strength — 
Eis strong steps. Schultens gives a 
trite Arabic phrase illustrative of sud- 
den diminution of power: — "Whoso 
keepeth not within the bounds of 
strength, his widest steps shall be 
straitened." Compare Prov. iv, 12. 




HANGING LAMPS. 



snare. 9 The gin shall take him by 
the heel, and k 'the robber shall prevail 
against him. 10 The snare is 3 laid for 
him in the ground, and a trap for him 
in the way. 11 h Terrors shall make 
him afraid on every side, and shall 
4 drive him to his feet. 12 His strength 
shall be hunger-bitten, and ' destruction 



3Heb. hidden. A Chap. 15. 21; 20.25; Jer. 

6. 25 ; 20. 3 ; 4(3. 5 ; 49. 29. 4 Heb. scatter him. 

i Chap. 15. 23. 



Large steps, free movement, etc., says 
Pvosenmiiller, are proverbial expressions 
among the Arabs to denote freedom, 
prosperity, etc. 

8. Walketh upon a snare — His 
terra firma is but earth-covered " lattice- 
work" (i"D3K>) over a pitfall concealing 

an unfathomable abyss. 

9. The robber — The noose (ch. v, 5) 
shall take fast hold of him. In verses 
8-10 six different modes of taking wild 
animalo are alluded to. They do not 
differ much from those still prevailing 
among barbarous tribes. The variety 
of figure employed indicates the hope- 
lessness of escape. 

10. The snare — Literally, Hidden in 
the earth is his snare; and his net (is) 
on the foot-path. The continuation in 
verse 10 of the figure of the fowler de- 
clares that that issue of sinful life has 
been preparing long beforehand ; the 
prosperity of the evildoer from the be- 
ginning tends toward ruin. (Delitzsch.) 

11. Drive him — Chase him at his 
feet. These terrors, personified, re- 
semble the furies of the Greek poets — 
their pursuit of the wicked man is so 
close that they are said to be at his 
heels. 

Decade, a. — Ravenous calamity, maim- 
ing disease, (see note ii, t,) and inexora- 
ble death — three insatiate furies — remand 
the wicked to the king of terrors, while the 
doom, of Sodom falls upon his habitation, 
and all that remains to him, 12-16. 

12 . His strength— This might better 
be read, his calamity shall be hungry, 
(for him,) though the older interpret- 
ers adopt the other meaning of jj$, 
strength. " Calamity " furnishes a more 
satisfactory parallel for "destruction," 
TX, which is a stronger word, signify- 
ing literally " a load of suffering." At 



126 



JOB. 



shall be ready at his side. 13 It shall 
devour the 5 strength of his skin : even 
the firstborn of death shall devour his 
strength. 14 k His confidence shall 
be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it 
shall bring him to the king of terrors. 

5 Hebrew, bars. k Chapter 8. 14 ; 11. 20 ; 

Psa. 112. 10 ; Proverbs 10. 28. 1 Chapter 29. 19 ; 



his side — Others read "for his fall." 
Destruction awaits the results which 
itself accomplishes. 

13. Strength — Hebrew, Baddim. The 
same word is used twice in this verse, and 
means parts or members. Skin stands 
here for bddv, as in Excdus xxii, 27. 
The discourse now becomes personal, 
for the disease Job had eats its way as 
Bildad describes. iEschylus speaks of 
"leprosies that assail the flesh with 
fierce fangs, and entirely eat away its 
original nature." — Choephori, 279. 
Firstborn of death — Whatever is 
pre-eminent in its kind is called in 
the Scriptures " the firstborn." If the 
Arab deems " fevers to be the daugh- 
ters of death," the terrible elephantia- 
sis may well be called his firstborn. 
Death has his family, and at the head 
of the dismal brood stands, in the 
Semitic mind, this most dreaded dis- 
ease. 

14. His confidence ... his taber- 
nacle — He shall be torn from his tent, 
his confidence; that on which he relies. 
As with us, his tent (house) may have 
been his castle; or, perhaps, the poet 
means his home, his children, which are 
the right arm of a man. Hitzig under- 
stands by tent his body, (2 Pet. i, 13 ; 
Isaiah xxxviii, 12,) "his strong, sound 
body, which promised a long life." 
But the use of the same word in the 
next verse, as a habitation for others, 
is fatal to this view. It shall bring — 
It. the dark, unseen, unnamed 'power, 
shall make him to march, " Slowly 
march," says Umbreit, with a view to 
the idea that the godless man has a fear- 
ful death before his eyes for a length of 
time — an evident allusion to the case of 
Job. The Assyrian monuments give 
striking pictures of captives bound in 
chains, marching in procession to death. 
" The Psalm of Life " has a like figure 
of " funeral marches to the grave." 
King of terrors — Death, whose first- 



15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, 
because it is none of his : brimstone 
shall be scattered upon his habitation. 

16 'His roots shall be dried up beneath, 
and above shall his branch be cut off. 

1 7 m His remembrance shall perish from 



Isaiah o. 24 ; Amos 2. 9 ; Malachi 4. 1. 
34. 16 ; 109. 13 : Proverbs 2. 22 ; 10. 7. 



born has done his work. This person- 
ification of death rests, probably, upon 
an instinctive feeling that, for the 
wicked, death is no mere privation of 
consciousness, but the entrance into a 
state of unknown horror. (Canon Cook.) 
It has been conjectured by some that 
in this term "king of terrors," (comp. 
Heb. ii, 14,) there is an allusion to 
Satan, who has "the power of death." 
In Jewish theology, Satan is called the 
prince over thohu, or chaos. 

15. His tabernacle — After he has 
been snatched from it, there shall dwell 
in his tent that which is not his, to wit : 
wild beasts, (Isa. xiii, 21,) or weeds 
and thorns, (Hos. ix, 6, Dillmann,) or 
strangers and aliens, (Hitzig.) Brim- 
stone — His doom shall be like that of 
Sodom and Gomorrah ; the fires of 
heaven shall fall upon his habitation. 
The ancients fancied that lightning 
had the smell of brimstone. Thus 
Pliny, (xxxv, 1,) " Lightning and thun- 
der are attended with a strong smell 
of sulphur, and the light produced 
by them is of a sulphureous com- 
plexion. " ' ; The desolation of his house 
is the most terrible calamity for the 
Semite. . . . For the Bedawi especially, 
although his hair tent leaves no mark, 
the thought of the desolation of his 
house, the extinction of his hospitable 
hearth, is terrible." — Wetzstein, in 
Bel. The ancients had a custom of 
fumigating houses with sulphur for 
purposes of purification and exorcism. 
But notwithstanding Dr. Adam Clarke's 
great authority, its application to the 
text is very questionable. (See Clarke, 
in loc.) 

16. Be cut off— Wither. The sar- 
cophagus of Ashmanasar, king of the 
Sidonians, discovered in recent times, 
has inscribed upon it a curse against 
those who should " disturb him upon 
his resting place ;" — " let him not have 
a root below or a branch above." In 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



127 



the earth, and he shall have no name 
in the street. 18 6 He shall be driven 
from light into darkness, and chased 
out of the world. 19 n He shall neither 
have son nor nephew among his peo- 
ple, nor any remaining in hit: dwellings. 
20 They that come after him shall be as- 



6 Heb. They shall drive him. n Isa. 14. 22 ; 

Jer. 22. 30. oPsa. 37. 13. 7 Or, lived icith 



the East, man is often compared to a 
tree, his destruction to the cutting off 
of its branches. (See Roberts, in he.) 

b. His memory shall survive only to 
serve as a warning to subsequent genera- 
tions, 17-21. 

17. Earth — Land. 1 Sam. xxiii, 23. 
In the street — Literally, that which is 
outside, — open country. Hitzig renders, 
"on the common." There shall be an 
utter extinction of his name : neither in 
town nor in the wilderness — nowhere — 
shall it be spoken. 

18. Chased out of the world — He 
shall not be conducted out of life, as 
Plato expresses it, with funereal pomp, 
by a numerous train of mourning citi- 
zens and relations, but shall be cast 
out of human society like a malefactor, 
and thrown underground with infamy 
and execration. (Scott.) The terror is 
heightened by the vagueness of the ex- 
pression, they shall chase him — an im- 
personal form for unknown agents, sent 
to drive him, like Adam from para- 
dise, out of a world of which he is not 
worthy. 

19. Son nor nephew — Literally, 
sprig nor sprout. Tyndale's rendering 
is admirable — " He shall nether have 
chyldren nor kynsfolcks amonge hys 
people ; noo. nor eny posterite in hys 
countrey" (places of sojourn). The orig- 
inal word for dwellings, according to 
Schultens, signified a refuge for stran- 
gers. The great men among the Arabs 
prided themselves upon the numbers of 
those who fled to them for protection. 
To such Schultens thinks Bildad may 
refer when he says, there shall be "no 
survivor in his dwellings." Under the 
earlier economies the doctrine of the im- 
mortality of the soul being more or less 
obscured, the natural desire for an after 
life developed into a vehement passion 
for an immortal line of posterity. This 
intensified the calamity threatened by 



tonished at ° his day, as they that 7 went 
before 8 were affrighted. 2 1 Surely such 
are the dwellings of the wicked, and this 
is the place of him that p knoweth not 
God. 

rp CHAPTER XIX. 

JL HEN Job answered and said, 2 How 



him. 8 Heb. laid hold on horror. v Jer. 

9. 3 ; 10. 25 ; 1 Thess. 4. 5 ; 2 Thess. 1. 8 ; Tit. 1. 16. 



Bildad — the wholesale destruction of 
the progeny of the wicked. Job is 
goaded to bitter thoughts over his own 
bereavement. 

20. They that come after him. . . 
they that went before — Ewald, Dill- 
man, Zockler, read, "Men of the west ; " 
..." Men of the east;" that is, Men of all 
lands ; while others prefer the reading 
of the Authorized Version. The words 

tMbrip and D»rin« signify things be- 
hind and before, and may be spoken 
either o e time or of place. The Hebrew 
marked the points of the compass with, 
his face to the east ; the right hand sig- 
naled the south ; the left, the north ; 
before, the east ; behind, the west. His 
day — The day of a man's doom is his 
day, for it is all that remains to him. 

21. That knoweth not God — 
These words, last in the Hebrew also, 
furnish a climax — a sneer at Job's most 
solemn protestations. (Chap, xvL, 19.) 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Job's Fifth Reply 
1. Then Job answered— His friends 
ought to be ashamed of their ill-treat- 
ment, for he, and he alone, has the 
brunt of his error, if error there be, to 
bear ; and the cause at issue really lies 
between him and his God. It was not 
enough, however, that God should have 
overthrown him, hedged him in, de- 
graded and altogether ruined him ; but 
his brethren, Ms wife, and his bosom 
friends, and even his servants, have 
turned against him. His wreck is so 
complete that he has thus far escaped 
only with the skin of his teeth. Yet in 
the darkest of all mortal hours there 
gleams upon him an incomparable reve- 
lation of hope, which he esteems so 
precious that he would have it inscrib- 
ed on the rock, where all the world 
might see and read, and that forever. 



128 



JOB. 



long "will ye vex my soul, and break 
me in pieces with words? 3 These 
b ten times have ye reproached me : ye 
are not ashamed that ye x make your- 
selves strange to me. 4 And be it in- 
deed that I have erred, mine error re- 
maineth with myself. 5 If indeed ye 
will c magnify yourselves against me, and 
plead against me my reproach ; 



a Psa. 13. 1; Rev. 6. 10. b Gen. 31. 7; Lev. 

26. 26. 1 Or, harden yourselves against rnje. 

Introduction — Even suppose there 
should be error, it is sad enough for Job 
that he bear its consequences, without being 
perpetually and maliciously reminded not 
only of his error but of his shame, 2-5. 

2. Bildad's repeated how long, (see 
chap, xviii,) Job hurls back with an 
indignation which is reflected in an 
exaggerated " ten times " of the next 
verse. 

3. Ten times — Used for many times. 
Thus Maimonides : "He who profanetli 
the name of God in the presence of ten 
Israelites, behold, he profanetli it in the 
presence of many." Or it may stand 
as the number of human possibility, 
says Delitzsch, from its being the num- 
ber of fingers on the two hands of man. 
Make yourselves strange to me 
— IJ-treat me. (Dillmann.) Stun me. 
(Zockler.) 

4. Remaineth — Literally, Passes the 
night, ppfl, vrith me. The busy and ab- 
sorbing scenes of the day divert the 
mind from its errors, guilt, and wretch- 
edness. At night, left to itself, the 
soul becomes the prey of thought and 
of the remindings of conscience. Amid 
the darkness, conscience asserts her 
supremacy, and lords it over the man. 
AY hat of the man, if the night be for- 
ever protracted ! An inscription on an 
Assyrian tablet (in the British Museum, 
K, No. 44) gives an invocation to the 
fire-god : — 

God of fire, with thy bright fire, 
In the house of darkness, light thou establishest. 
. . . To the wicked in the night, the causes 
of trembling art thou. 
The works of man, the child of his God, do 
thou purify. . . . 

5. And plead — Then prove. If ye 
will look down upon me in pride, it is 
incumbent upon you by good arguments 
to prove against me shamelessness of 



6 Know now that God hath over- 
thrown me, and hath compassed me 
with his net. 7 Behold, I cry out of 
2 wrong, but I am not heard : I cry aloud, 
but there is no judgment. 8 d He hath 
fenced up my way that I cannot pass, 
and he hath 'set darkness in my paths. 
9 e He hath stripped me of my glory, 
and taken the crown from my head. 



c Psalm 38. 16. 
, 23 ; Psa. 88. 8.- 



-2 Or, 

e Psa. 89. 44 



Chap. 



deed or of life. Reproach, in the orig- 
inal, is the sense of shame which sin 
brings in its train. The Hebrew has no 
stronger word for shame than — nSHfl. 
Some make this verse a question. T : v 

First division — None other than 
God could be the author of such 
calamities as those that have be- 
FALLEN Job, 6-20. 

First strophe — Job admits that it is 
impossible that a calamity bearing such 
marks of design (comp. xix, 6 with xviii, 
8-10) — one, too, so complete and over- 
whelming — should have proceeded from 
any other than God, who consistently turns 
a deaf ear to his solemn appeals, 6-12. 

Satan so contrived the misfortunes, 
and especially the disease, of Job, as 
to convince him that they must be the 
work of God, hoping the more assuredly 
to wreck his faith. See note on i, 15, 
and xix, 21. 

6. Overthrown me — Others read, 
perverted, wrested me. With his net— 
The net was frequently used in ancient 
warfare for the purpose of entangling, 
and thus more easily destroying, an 
enemy. Kitto (Pict. Bible) cites an in- 
stance in history (about 600 3 r ears be- 
fore Christ) of a single combat between 
the commanders of the Athenian and 
Mitylenean forces ; the latter (Pittacus, 
one of the famous seven sages) con- 
cealed behind his shield a net, in which, 
throwing it suddenly, he entangled the 
Athenian general, and easily slew him. 
" Bildad had said that the wicked would 
be taken in his own snares. Job says 
that God has ensnared him." — Elzas. 

7. Of wrong — Behold, I cry aloud, 
"Violence ! " and am not answered. 
Hab. i, 2. 

8. See note on iii, 23. 

9. The crown — Though not a king, 
Job's former state was truly regal. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



129 



10 He hath destroyed me on every side, 
and I am gone : and mine hope hath he 
removed like a tree. 1 1 He hath also 
kindled his wrath against me, and f he 
counteth me unto him as one o/his ene- 
mies. 12 His troops come together, 
and g raise up their way against me, and 
encamp round about my tabernacle. 
1 3 h He hath put my brethren far from 
me, and mine acquaintance are verily 



/Chap. 13. 24; Lam. 2. 5.- 
APsa. 31. 11; 38.11; 6! 



-g Chap. 30. 12. 
V, 88. 8, 18. 



10. Destroyed — XTU, a word in com- 
mon use for the pulling down of build- 
ings. Removed — Uprooted. By these 
figures Job expresses complete destruc- 
tion. 

11. One of his enemies — Hebrew, 
his foes ; not one, but several. God treats 
him as if he were many enemies in one. 

12. Gives the three stages of a siege : 
invasion; the throwing up of a mound; 
and, finally, complete investment. In 
their attacks on walled places both the 
Assyrians and the Egyptians used to 
cast up mounds or " banks." 2 Kiugs 
xix, 32 ; Isa. xxxvii, 33 ; Jer. xxxii, 24. 
These not only enabled the besiegers 
to push their battering rams up to the 
fortress, but at the same time to scale 
its walls. The judgments of God, sub- 
jecting man to extreme suffering, are 
often spoken of under the figure of a 
siege. Isa. xxix, 3. 

Second strophe — God's treatment of 
Jot has resulted in the alienation of his 
friends of every grade, so that the menials 
of his house now treat him with contempt, 
13-20. 

13. My brethren — Umbreit cites 
an Arabic proverb, "The brother — that 
is, the true friend — is only known in 
time of need." Job specifies six differ- 
ent phases of friendship, or classes of 
friend", whom his sufferings had alien- 
ated: in general, his brethren, (vi, 15;) 
his "knowers," "confidants," (acquaint- 
ance;) his kinsmen, "near ones," (Psa. 
xxxviii, 11 :) " those familiarly known," 
(fiimiliar friends.) ver. 14; sojourners in 
his house, (ver. 15:) and finally, bosom 
friends, (inward friends.) ver. 19. 

15. They. . .dwell in mine house 
— Deli zsch understands them to be 
domestics or vassals. 

Vol. V.— 10 



estranged from me. 14 My kinsfolk 
have failed, and my 'familiar friends 
have forgotten me. 15 They that dwell 
in mine house, and my maids, count me 
for a stranger: I am an alien in their 
sight. 16 I called my servant, and he 
gave me no answer ; I entreated him with 
my mouth. 1 7 My breath is strange to 
my wife, though I entreated for the chil- 
dren's sake of 3 mine own body. 18 Yea, 



* Psalm 55.12, 14 ; Jeremiah 20. 10. 3 He- 
brew, my belly. 

16. My servant — Probably a head 
servant, as in Gen. xxiv, 2. With my 
mouth — The mouth that had been ac- 
customed to command now entreats. 

17. Though I entreated, etc. — 
Now generally translated, lam offensive 
to the sons, etc. The Hebrew is equivo- 
cal in meaning. (See below.) Job's dis- 
ease was no less offensive to the sense 
of sight than to that of smell. It is to the 
latter sense he may now refer. Chil- 
dren — Some suppose he refers to his 
grandchildren, as his own children were 
believed to be all dead. But as the 
word rendered body signifies also womb, 
others think that he speaks of his own 
full brothers, that is, brothers by the 
same mother. Tayler Lewis renders the 
passage thus : " My temper, TTfl, [in the 
sense of religious faith,] to my wife is 
strange — my yearning for the children 
that she bare," and devotes a long note 
to its defence. This rendering of "'Hilin 

agrees with the Arabic version, " My 
longing is for, or, I yearn after, the 
children of my body." Such a sense is 
justified by the Arabic hhanan, signify- 
ing "to be moved by affection, either 
maternal or paternal," as in Schultens, 
(i. 474,) who illustrates by the exceed- 
ing fondness of the camel for her young. 
It establishes a satisfactory parallelism, 
and removes the difficulty connected 
with the subsequent words of the verse. 
It is observable that Job makes no 
mention of his children except here and 
in chap, xxix, 5. Their tragical death 
reudered the subject too painful for 
speech. In one of the Arabic poems of 
the Moallakat we have. "The unkind- 
ness of relations gives keener anguish 
to every noble breast than the stroke 
of an Indian scimitar." It is said of 
O. T. 



130 



JOB. 



4 * young children despised me ; I arose, 
and they spake against me. 19 'All 
5 my inward friends abhorred me: and 
they whom I loved are turned against 
me. 20 m My bone cleaveth to my skin 
6 and to my flesh, and I am escaped with 
the skin of my teeth. 



4 Or, the xoicTced- 
41. 9; 55. 13, 14, 20. 
my secret. 



-&2 Kinsrs 2. 23. ZPsa. 

-5 Hebrew, the men of 



Job's great antitype, "He came unto 
his own, and his own received him 
not." John i, 11. 

18. I arose — The original intimates 
difficulty in so doing. The boys ridicule 
the efforts he makes to arise. 

19. Inward friends — Literally, mew 
of my counsel, that is, bosom friends. . 

20. The skin of my teeth— In the 
last stages of the disease (elephantiasis) 
the tongue and the gums are attacked, 
aud the mouth filled with ulcers so as 
to render continuous speech impossible. 
This terrible infliction he has (he means 
to say) thus far escaped. The Germans 
call the gums zahn-fleisch, tooth-flesh, 
which, indeed, is the rendering Hitzig 
gives. An old English physician (Smith) 
in his " Portrait of Old Age, "(p. 69,) had 
hit upon the true sense of this passage. 
" There are two parts of the teeth : the 
basis and the radix, that is, the part 
which eminently appears white above 
the gums; this is that part which is 
within the gums, and stands fixed in 
the mandibles. Now, by Job's skin or 
covering of his teeth, it is apparent he 
meant the gums which cover the roots 
of the teeth." "Wordsworth unneces- 
sarily regards it " as a proverbial para- 
dox. 11 Job is now in extremis. In the 
preceding chapter, while yet he could, 
he chanted his requiem. The next 
stage of his disease means death. There 
is but the skin of his teeth between 
him and sure destruction. 

Second division — The piteous ap- 
peal Job makes to his friends for 
sympathy opens up an extremity of 
distress, out of which, as is so com- 
mon in the economy of grace, springs 
a most triumphant assurance of 
faith in God's purposes of eternal 
good towards him, 21-27. 

The intensified storm of doubts, fears, 
griefs, and desolation quickly retires 



21 Have pity upon me, have pity up- 
on me, O ye my friends ; "for the hand 
of God hath touched me. 22 Why- do 
ye "persecute me as God, and are* not 
satisfied with my flesh ? 23 7 Oh that 
my words were now written ! oh that 
they were printed in a book ! 24 That 



m Chap. 30. 30 ; Psa. 102. 5 ; Lam. 4. 8. 6 Or, 

s. nChap. 1. 11; Psa. 38. 2. oPsa. 69. 26. 

— 7 Heb. Who will give, &c. 



along the sky, and discloses a bow of 
peace, in beauty far transcending that 
of nature. Tayler Lewis supposes that 
a pause ensued after the repeated 
prayer for pity. 

21. Touched me— ytt, naga'h. The 

leprosy was called the stroke (negd'h) of 
God. (See note ii, 8.) The most touch- 
ing appeal of the leper is, even at the 
present day, in vain. Though he be 
the greatest personage, he is removed 
at least a mile or two from the encamp- 
ment, where a small black hair tent is 
put up for him, while an old woman 
who has no relations living is given 
him for a nurse until he dies. No one 
visits him, not even his nearest rela- 
tions. He is cast off as muqdtal Allah, 
" slain of God." — Wetzstein. 

22. Satisfied with my flesh — Ac- 
cording to Schultens, to eat the flesh of 
another, is an Arabic phrase for calum- 
niating him. The comparison, so com- 
mon in the Bast, of an evil report to a 
wild beast devouring the flesh, appears 
often in the classics, and is still retain- 
ed in our word backbite. Psa. xxvii, 2* 

23. Written — So ancient is the 
knowledge of writing that Pliny says 
"it appears to have been in use from 
all eternity." It is now conceded that 
to the parent Semitic tribe belongs the 
honour to have been first in posses- 
sion of this invaluable invention. The 
knowledge of letters comes into his- 
tory through the Hebrews and Phoe- 
nicians, who, it will be remembered, 
are classed among the Semitic nations. 
These letters appear vastly more per- 
fect than the hieroglyphic system of 
Egypt or the cuneiform one of Assyria. 
(Ewald, Hist, of Israel, i, 51 ; Ren an, 
Les Langues Sem., i, 105 ; Winer, Rich. 
ii, 421.) In remote times papyrus, (see 
note viii, 11,) the tkins of animals, and 



CHAPTER XIX. 



131 



they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! 25 For I 

Egyptian linen cloth, furnished the ma- 
terials on which writing was made with 
the pen. Books, in the ancient sense 
of the term, consisted of sheets of 
papyrus, etc., with writing on one side, 
and rolled around a staff. Papyrus 
rolls are now in existence written more 
than two thousand years B. C. The 
Turin copy of " The Book of the Dead," 
written, probably, in the time of the 
Ptolemies, is more than a hundred feet 
long. Printed in a book — Inscribed 
in the book. Septuagint, "a book" 
which Merx prefers. Schultens thinks 
some public book is meant, in which il- 
lustrious deeds were written. Exodus 
xvii, 14 speaks of writing a memorial 
in the book, IDBH- Taking one of the 



root meanings of this word, sepher, to 
scrape or shave off, Havernick insists 
that the word is used of no other writ- 
ing materials than skins of animals. 
There would be, however, no more rea- 
son for pressing the prime meaning 
of the Hebrew for "book " than that of 
pprij printed; which signifying to cut 

into, hew into, would demand some more 
solid material than that of parchment. 
The book of which Job speaks may 
have been of wood or of some kind of 
metal. Very recently there has been 
discovered a copy of an extraditionary 
treaty between Raineses II., king of 
Egypt, and a prince of the Hittites. 
This is described as having been en- 
graved by the latter upon an oblong 
tablet of silver, of which the Egyptian 
text gives the figure. It was sur- 
mounted by a ring which must have 
been used for suspending it. (M.Chabas, 
Voyage, etc., p. 345.) Among the early 
Canaauites there was a very import- 
ant city called "the Book City," Kir- 
jath-sepher, Josh, xv, 15. This was, 
probably, a city of the Hittites. Pliny 
(xiii, 21) speaks of the preservation of 
public documents in leaden volumes. 
Folding wooden tablets were employed 
for the same purpose even before the 
time of the Trojan war. (Iliad, vi, 169.) 
The native city of Hesiod honoured his 
memory by engraving one of his poems 
on tablets of lead. (Pausanias, ix, 31.) 



Very possibly Job refers to clay tablets 
or cylinders, such as have been discov- 
ered in modern times at Nineveh, on 
which the work is so minute and ex- 
quisitely wrought that the aid of a 
magnifying-glass is requisite to ascer- 
tain the forms of the letters. See 
La yard, Nineveh, ii, 186 ; iii, 345. 

24. Since ink, parchment, and metal 
may perish, Job desires that the mo- 
mentous truth he is about to utter may 
be chiseled into the rock ; and, that the 
characters may be forever legible, he 
would have them filled in with lead. A 
gradation of thought is intended, a3 
Holemann has indicated — first the 
writing, then the inscribing in a book, 
and last the chiseling into the rock for- 
ever. Rocks abound in the East bear- 
ing inscriptions not only of historical 
events, but of legal precepts, prayers, 
etc. While no one knows that the 
wish of Job was ever fulfilled, his 
precious thoughts stand recorded upon 
the rock of heavenly truth. Generation 
after generation have gazed with won- 
dering and trusting hearts upon these 
imperishable lines, and thus shall it be 
so long as rocks and mountains stand. 

The Inscription — Job's Confession 
op Faith. 
Such is its momentousness that we 
give the Hebrew with a literal transla- 
tion, and in the reverse order, as in the 
original: — 

living(is)|my Redeemer 1 1 know | And I 

i B^ "tear)?? THtwi 

shall stand | on the dust | the last. And 
this they destroy | my skin. | And after 
G-od | I shall see. | And from my flesh 
for myself | I shall see. j I, | "Whom, 
and not another | behold. | And my eyes 
within me J my reins. | Are consumed 



132 



JOB. 



know that my Eedeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the 



25. For I know— 1 ' For "—and. It 
is not uncommon in the classics to com- 
mence a distinct poem or treatise in like 
manner. (Ovid, Am. iii, 8 ; Propertius, 
i, 17.) Ewald pertinently renders it but, 
in the sense of "Yet whereto other 
thoughts?" Or it may be used in a 
manner similar to the otl of classic and 
N. T. Greek, which is often redundant 
before citations and declarative sen- 
tences. (Comp. Thayer's Buttmann, pp. 
245, 214.) And I, I Mow. The "I" 
stands forth with prominence as if to 
express the personal identity of the en- 
tire man. No one of the constituent na- 
tures answers to the "I;" but all — 
body, mind, and spirit together — con- 
stitute man. Thus in verse 27, " Whom 
I, I shall see for myself." I know — By 
degrees has Job been rising to this 
wondrous sunlight of faith. There has 
been all along not only a progress of 
doctrine, but a steady advance in faith. 
He has sighed for a daysman (ix, 33) 
who might intercede for man with God. 
(xvi, 21.) The fearful struggle in the 
fourteenth chapter disclosed, for the 
miserable service in sheol, gleams of 
hope that God would bring it to an end. 
(xiv, 14. ) Still horrors and doubts have 
" compassed him about " until, in agony, 
he cries out to God that he himself 
should be his sponsor with himself, 
(xvii, 3.) And all this time his " at- 
testor in the heights" (xvi, 19) has kept 
silence. But now the clouds vanish, 
and he cries triumphantly aloud, I 
know my Redeemer liveth, etc. It is 
to be remembered that from this time 
forth we hear no more of the gloom of 
sheol, or of dismal doubts concerning 
the state of the dead. My Redeemer 
— Hebrew, Goel. The prime meaning 
of the verb is loose, set free. There is no 
word that, better than redeemer, ex- 
presses the fourfold duties of a goel or 
kinsman. On him devolved, first, the 
recovery of the lost possession of a kins- 
man; (Lev. xxv, 25 ;) second, the deliv- 
erance of a kinsman from bondage ; 
(Lev. xxv, 48, 49 ;) third, the avenging 
of the violent death of a kinsman ; (Num. 
xxxv, 12 ;) fourth, care for the widow 
of a deceased and childless kinsman ; 



(Dent, xxv, 5.) See vol iii, 308, 314. 
Christ is our nearest kinsman. Through 
his veins coursed a tide of blood in 
common with that of our entire race. 
The extremes of our race unite in him — 
however remote the circle of human- 
ity, its radii all centre in him. Each 
human being can lay claim to a re- 
lationship to this divine Goel as close 
and tender as that which bound the 
brothers and sisters of Jesus to him- 
self. (Matt, xiii, 56.) He stretches his 
arm of protection over our whole life, 
and draws to his heart each sorrow- 
ing child of Adam. Liveth — (Is) living. 
"He ever liveth," "hath life in him- 
self," " in him was life." Job's Re- 
deemer would be pre-eminently a living 
one. "Life, in the Hebrew and Semitic 
languages, is a more complete idea than 
being."— Dillmann. He shall stand — 
The posture of Christ in great emer- 
gencies. (Acts vii, 56.) Faith sees its 
future champion standing upon (not 
rising upon) the dust, as some would 
read the clause. The attitude is one 
of firmness, dignity, and endurance, 
like that of the angel of the last day. 
(Revelations x, 5.) At the latter day 
upon the earth — Though Merx and 

others render j i T n X at the latter, 

at last, it is plainly a substantive: — 
The last (Gesenius, Michaelis, Zockler, 
etc.) It is an attribute of Deity (Isa- 
iah xlviii, 12) which Christ assumes 
to himself, (Revelations i, 11,) and to 
which the apostle alludes (" the last 
Adam ") in his description of the resur- 
rection. (1 Cor. xv, 45.) The earth— 
The dust. That into which the dead 
body moulders ; hence the " dusty 
death" of the classics. Shall the dust 
(dead body : De Wette) praise thee ? 
(Psa. xxx, 9.) Ewald and Merx read, in- 
stead of "upon the earth," "on (my) 
grave" a sense justified by the fre- 
quent use by Job of "dust" for the 
grave, (vii, 21 ; x, 9 ; xvii, 16; xx, 11 ; 
xxi, 26; xxxiv, 15.) The expression 
dust is peculiarly elegant in view of 
man's origin and destiny. (Gen. iii, 19.) 
In the Arabic the tomb is called turbe, 
dust. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



133 



earth : 26 8 And though after ray skin 
worms destroy this body, yet p in my 



8 Or, After I shall awake, though this body 
be destroyed, yet out of my Jle.sk shall I see 



26. And after my skin — That is, 
when my skin is no more. "After " can 
only be a preposition. (See Hirtzel in be.) 
If, as some prefer, it be read adverbial- 
ly, we shall have, And after they have 
thus destroyed my skin. But there are 
greater difficulties in this than in the 
reading of the Authorized Version. De- 
stroy this — So many and varied are 
the agencies that destroy the body that 
they are not enumerated. The Orien- 
tals, however, were of the opinion that 
worms were the principal cause of its 
destruction. They say — according to 
Roberts — that the life is first destroyed 
by them and afterwards the body. The 
word Sf?Ji in the Piel rendered de- 
stroy, in the Arabic (nakafa) signifies to 
smash or crush the head. It is one of 
the most powerful words in the Se- 
mitic languages to express complete 
destruction. This — Though not ex- 
pressed, the allusion is evidently to 
the body. Yet — " Yet " (?) is adver- 
sative. (SeeXordheimer,ii, 294.) In my 
flesh — From my flesh. The word min, 
from, is supposed by some to mean with- 
out, apart from, and is thus given by 
Conant, Zockler in Lange, Ewald, etc. 
But Pusey and Perowne are right when 
they say that }ft can uo more, of itself, 
mean : ' without " than our word " from. " 
At the same time, the grammatical 
construction justifies the sense of in. 
Thus Rosenmiiller, Kosegarten, Welte. 
Clarke, Carey, Xoyes. Wordsworth, 
etc. : also the Vulgate, the Targum, 
("Walton's rendering.) etc. The use of the 
word min, from, in the sense of in, is by 
no means alien to the Hebrew. This 
is especially the case in connexion with 
verbs of speaking, hearing, seeing, etc. 
The place from which the observer 
looks is invariably connected with the 
verb by the word from. A like remark 
holds good of the other senses. (Gesexi- 
us, Thesaurus, p. 804.) Thus Sol. Song, 
(ii, 9,) "he looketh forth at,' 1 (literally, 
from,) " the windows." Comp. 2 Chron. 
vi, 21. Eastward, i. e.. in the east. (Gen. 



flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I 
shall see for myself, and mine eyes 

God. p Psalm 17. 15; 1 Corinthians 13. 12; 

1 John 3- 2. 

ii, 8,) is literally from the east. Besides, 
Job freely uses at least rive other prepo- 
sitions to express ivithout, either one of 
which would have been better to con- 
vey the idea of without than the min 
before us. For instance, (Hebrew text,) 
iv, 11, 20, 21: vi, 6 ; vii, 6; viii, 11 ; xxiv, 
7, 10; xxx, 8, 28 ; xxxi, 1 9, 39; xxxiii, 9; 
xxxiv, 6, 20; xxxviii, 2. 41; xxxix, 16; 
xli, 33. Thrice, indeed, elsewhere in 
Job, min occurs in a privative sense, 
(hi, 19: xi, 15; xxi, 9,) which, how- 
ever, can hardly be regarded as parallel 
cases. If Job speaks of beholding God 
with his bodily eyes after that body 
has been destroyed, it must be from a 
new body. The subsequent beholding 
of Gel with his eyes, (" mine eyes,") 
identifies it with the body he then had, 
the body to which he had before point- 
ed with the deictical this. The un- 
biased interpretation of this passage 
discloses substantially the elements of 
the doctrine of the resurrection, even 
though their full meaning may have 
been hidden from Job. See Excursus V. 
27. Whom I — See note on verse 25. 
Mine eyes — If the sight of God be 
solely that of the disembodied spirit, 
as many think, the expression " mine 
eyes " is superfluous and misleading. 
The six preceding Hebrew words four 
times disclose the same thought, that 
he, the identical person, after death, 
shall see God. If the sight be not a 
bodily one, the introduction of " mine 
eyes" is a solecism, a descent in thought, 
and a blemish upon the inscription. 
The eye is the frailest, most delicate, 
of the members of our physical frame — 
among the first to succumb to decay, 
and yet it is to be the medium through 
which the soul shall enjoy the sight of 
God. If God's promise cover the eye 
it suffices for our entire dust. Behold 
— The Hebrew, exact in the use of his 
language, employed !"lTn see (twice 
above) for mental vision, and for tlio 
sight of such objects as were subjected 
to the mind without the senses, such, 
for instance, as visions and oracles, 



134 



JOB. 



shall behold, and not 9 another 
my reins be consumed 10 within me. 
28 But ye should say, q Why persecute 
we him, « seeing the" root of the matter 



9 Hebrew, a stranger, 
bosom. < 



— 10 Hebrew, in my 
Verse 22. 



(Num.xxiv,4,16; Ezk.xii,27; Hab.i,l,) 
while HiO, behold, was used of sight as 

an act of the senses. "The preterite 
raou, rendered behold, after the future 
'I shall see,' is the perfect of certainty 
or futurity ; " (Zockler) in like manner 
Delitzsch, Ewald, etc. And not an- 
other — According to G-esenius, Stickel, 
Hahn, etc., "another" is the object of the 
verb. Thus Dr. Clarke: "Not a stran- 
ger, one who has no relation to human 
nature, but my redeeming kinsman." 
Many others, however, (Zockler, Heng- 
stenberg, etc.,) make another or stranger 
the nominative of the verb, and read, 
not a stranger, who would have no in- 
terest in the beatific sight, but himself, 
(now the alien, the rejected of God, then 
no longer a stranger,) shall behold him 
in his capacity of divine Goel. The 
words correlate with " mine eyes." 
They are words of ecstatic triumph, 
and form the transition to the last 
clause of the inscription. Though my 
reins — Neither the though of the text 
nor the when of Conant is justifiable. 
The reins, which were regarded as the 
seat of the deepest affections, consume 
within him (see margin) from intense 
longing for the realization of such a 
sight of God. See Excursus ix, p. 285. 
Conclusion — Inspired by the vision of 
faith, Job not only ceases to be a suppli- 
cant for pity, but faithfully warns his 
persecutors thai continued maltreatment of 
the unfortunate must provoke the wrath of 
Heaven, 28, 29. 

28. But ye should say — If ye say, 
"How shall we persecute him, and the root 
of the matter is found in me ?" The root 
of the matter — The cause of the 
whole trouble; that is, his guilt and sin. 

29. Be ye afraid — A continuation 
(the apodosis) of the preceding verse. 
The punishments of the sword — 
niJiy means iniquities, which in this 
case deserved the punishment of the 
sword, succinctly called " sins of the 
aword." "With the Hebrew the sword 



is found in me ? 29 Be ye afraid of the 
sword : for wrath bring eth the punish- 
ments of the sword, r that we may know 
there is a judgment. 

11 Or, and what root of matter is found in 
me t r Psa. 58. 10, 11. 



was the symbol of the divine judg- 
ments, (xv, 22 ; Deut. xxxii, 41 ; Psa. 
vii, 1 2, etc.) It was also the insignia 
of the judge, and pointed to the judg- 
ment he executed. The last two He- 
brew words stand as the equivalent, 
as well as the outcome, of the first, 
"wrath." The sense, then, is not far 
from that of our translators, wrath is, 
or bringeth, death. By "wrath" Heng- 
stenberg understands that wrath of 
God, which visits capital misdeeds — 
those which deserve the sword. See 
note on xxxvi, 18. A judgment — 
p^p, a compound word, the first letter 

of which is an abbreviation of IK'Xi 

signifying that. Ewald's objection, that 
such a compounding of words would 
be solitary in our book is invalid, since 
a like use of the pronoun appears once 
in Deborah's song, (Judges v, 7,) and 
only once besides in the same book, 
(Judges vi, IT.) Dillmann's reading, 
"Almighty," would require a radical 
change of the word. Divine judgments 
await the wrong doer here, and serve 
as so many indices of the judgment to 
come. " If there were no other argu- 
ment for a life to come, sin would fur- 
nish one never to be refuted." The 
incomplete punishment of sin in this 
life necessitates punishment in the next. 

EXCURSUS V.— THE INSCRIPTION. 

This memorable passage has given 
rise to more comment, and probably to 
a greater division of sentiment, than 
any other in the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures. The history of these opinions 
does not lie within our scope, except 
to remark in general that the olden 
faith, that these lines referred to the 
Messiah and the resurrection of the 
body, has, to a great extent, given 
place in modern times to the view that 
the deliverance was altogether confined 
to this life, and that the earnest desire 
of Job was answered by the disclosure 
of Deity at the end of the debate, a 



CHAPTER XIX. 



135 



view which is shared by such com- 
meutators as Albert Barnes, Stuart, and 
Noyes. More recent interpreters, how- 
ever, incline to the opinion that Job 
speaks of a vision of God after death ; 
though these do not for the most part 
acknowledge the teaching of a resur- 
rection of the body. The question of 
Job's faith in such a resurrection is so 
closely allied to the other question, of 
his belief in the existence of the soul 
after death, that the admission of the 
one seems quite to involve that of the 
other. J. J. S. Perowne, who doubts 
that the passage alludes to an after life, 
admits, " most certainly if there be any 
expression here of a hope reaching be- 
yond this world, then there can be no 
doubt, I think, that Job looks for a 
resurrection, not merely for a future 
life." — Huls. Lee. on Immortality, p. 80. 

I. The evidently great importance, in 
JoVs estimation, of the inscription. Job 
desires that it should be chiselled into 
the rock, and in such a manner as to 
endure forever. The temporal theory, 
which looks to the vindication of Job's 
character and the restoration of his 
loss, fails to present us an inscription 
with a purport worthy of such high 
consideration. 

The experience of the Church in all 
ages proves that the vindication of 
character in tins life, and the restoration 
of temporal loss, are not of so much con- 
sequence in the divine estimate. The 
Scriptures assume, rather, that loss and 
ignominy are incidental to the life of 
the good man, and that restitution and 
vindication are to take place in the life 
to come. It is of more importance that 
the moral government of God in this 
world should be vindicated ; a demand 
that can be met only in a future life, 
comprehending within itself redemp- 
tion for the entire man. 

II. The natural impression that the 
language, literally interpreted, makes upon 
the mind. Mr. Barnes concedes that 
the language which is used is such as 
would properly describe the coming 
Messiah and the future resurrection of 
the dead. '-Tnis," he says, ''is un- 
doubted, though more so in our trans- 
lation than in the original ; but the 
original would appropriately express 



such an expectation." This may ac- 
count for the marked unanimity among 
the ancient interpreters of this passage. 
Although the Septuagint, in the opinion 
of some, is of doubtful meaning, its 
rendering is, "For I know that he is 
eternal who is about to deliver me, and 
to raise up upon the earth my skin 
(the Codex Alexandrinus has aw/za, body) 
that endures these " (sufferings.) Tne 
Targum, the Yulgate, Clemens Ro- 
manus, Ephraim, Epiphanius, Augus- 
tine, and many others of the fathers ; 
of more recent Continental interpret- 
ers, Schultens, J. H. and J. D. Michae- 
lis, Rosenmuller, Kosegarlen, Pareau, 
Welte, and Velthuseu; and of English 
commentators, Adam Clarke. Good, 
Hales, Carey, Pusey, Wordsworth, and 
others ; have seen in this inscription 
either a prophecy of, or an allusion to, 
the resurrection of the dead. * The ob- 
jection that nothing is said in reply to 
the startling thoughts of Job may be 
met by the consideration that no reply 
is made to other startling expressions, 
as those of a Daysman, (ix, 33.) hope 
within sheol,.(xiv, 13-16,) and advocacy 
of God with God, (xvi, 21.) The objec- 
tion would be equally good against any 
possible interpretation of the inscrip- 
tion, for there is no direct reference made 
to it in the replies of the friends. It 
confessedly stands out alone — a vein of 
golden ore in the adamantine rock. 

In the earlier ages truth was given in 
fragments. It was isolated, succinct, 
compressed, not unlike the utterances 
of oracles. The reader will be remind- 
ed of the gospel given in the garden, 
the prediction by Enoch of a judgment 
to come, the promise of Shiloh. and the 
prophecies through the Gentile Balaam. 
They who thus became agents for the 
transmission of divine truth may have 
failed to comprehend it in all its bear- 
ings, but the truth is on that account 
none the less rich and comprehensive. 
In the living Goel who shall stand upon 
the dust, Job may not have seen Christ 
in the fulness of the atonement; nor 
in the view of God " from the flesh," 
have grasped the glories of the resur- 
rection morn ; but the essential feat- 
ures of these two cardinal doctrines 
of Scripture are there, identical with 



136 



JOB. 



those we now see in greater complete- 
ness; even as the outlines of a land- 
scape, however incompletely sketched, 
are still one with those of the rich and 
perfected picture. 

Dr. Green wisely remarks that "the 
resurrection of the body was probably 
not present to Job's thoughts, certainly 
not in the form of a general and simul- 
taneous rising from the dead. And 
yet it is so linked, seminally at least, 
with our continued spiritual existence, 
and it is so natural, and even necessary, 
for us to transfer our ideas of being, 
drawn from the present state, to the 
great hereafter, that it may perhaps be 
truly said that the germs of the resur- 
rection may likewise be detected here." 
— The Argument, etc., p. 216. 

III. The structure of the language. The 
keenest dissection of the seutences 
shows that there is nothing in the 
words themselves incompatible with a 
rudimental hope of the resurrection. 
The exegesis of the present day, as we 
have seen, accords to them the hope of 
immortality. The concession, we be- 
lieve, carries with it the entire bulwark. 
"When Job says that with his own 
eyes he shall behold Eloah, it is, indeed, 
possible by these eyes to understand 
the eyes of the spirit ; but it is just as 
possible to understand him to mean the 
eyes of his renewed body. . .and when 
Job thinks of himself (verse 25) as a 
mouldering corpse, should he not by 
his eyes, which shall behold Eloah, 
mean those which have been dimmed in 
death, and are now again become capa- 
ble of seeing ? ' ' — Delitzsch, i, 3 7 1 . Those 
who reject the doctrine of a resurrection 
are confronted with serious difficulties 
in the expressions "from my flesh" and 
"mine eyes." They who confine the 
interpretation to the idea of immortalit}' 
do grammatical violence to the former 
of the two expressions, "from my 
flesh," (see note, verse 26,) — and the 
tautology is not to be overlooked, since 
he has just before uttered the words 
"after my skin" — and at the same 
time they are constrained to spiritual- 
ize the latter — " mine eyes." Job hav- 
ing spoken once and again of the li I " 
who shall see God, the expression 
" mine eyes " appears to be expletive, 



unless he means the eyes of his body 
after its death. Then, too, we have 
" upon the dust," •' after my skin," and 
"not another," each of which expres- 
sions are excrescences upon the pas- 
sage if we accept either the theory 
of deliverance in this life, or the spir- 
itual beholding of God in the life to 
come. An insignificant and jejune in- 
scription is the rock on which, on the 
one side, the temporal theory must split ; 
while on the other, the superfluities in 
an inscription confessedly epigrammat- 
ic, make the Charybdis in which those 
critics who spiritualize the passage 
must founder. In other words, if the 
proposed inscription means merely the 
present life, it is hardly worth inscrib- 
ing ; if it have no idea of a resurrection 
it has so much that is superfluous, that 
it is at war with itself; it seems pruned 
to the utmost degree, and compacted, 
and yet at the same time is weighed 
down with redundancies. 

IV. The scope of the context. During 
the course of the debate, Job has fre- 
quently given utterance not only to his 
despair of life, but to a passionate long- 
ing for death, (vi, 8-12; vii, 15 ; x, 18-21; 
xvii, 11-16.) Continued life entails 
inexpressible wretchedness. Therefore 
he digs for death more than for hid 
treasures. The glowing descriptions 
of brighter days that adorned the dis- 
courses of his friends sound to him 
as words of mockery, (xvi, 20 ; xvii, 2.) 
This very chapter speaks of his utter 
destruction, (verse 10.) It is, he says, 
like that of a house fallen into ruins or 
a tree plucked up by the roots. Life 
no longer enters into his estimate. He 
had at times caught a glimpse of another 
life. His eye of faith had seen that the 
gloom of sheol could not last forever. 
The voice of God should surely call the 
sentinel from his dreary post, xiv, 13-1 6. 

"We are prepared for any notes of tri- 
umph from the welkin of a life to come, 
and even to see Job "plant the flag of 
victory over his own grave." — Delitzsch. 
But here to talk of mere temporal life, 
(vain and barren in its best estate,) of 
compensation for loss, and an avenger 
of blood, is as much out of place as 
"the bleating of sheep and the lowing 
of oxen " at Gilgal. 1 Sam. xv, 14. The 



CHAPTER XIX. 



137 



view into the dark grave, by contrast 
reminds him of the view of God on its 
other side; and the sight of his loath- 
some body naturally suggests the hope 
that the time of its renewal should come, 
and that from his body he should yet 
see God. 

V. The ancient and wide-spread belief 
in a resurrection, or more properly, a re- 
vivifying of tJie body. The objection has 
been strongly urged against the evan- 
gelistic interpretation of this passage 
that the dogma of a resurrection is of 
more recent disclosure than the time 
of Job. This objection now quite dis- 
appears beneath the accumulating light 
of our age. It now appears that the 
most ancient of the civilized nations en- 
joyed high religious light. Frequent dis- 
coveries are made of religious truth in 
what appear most barren fields, which 
prove to be nuggets of gold from wastes 
of sand. "With almost every Pagan peo- 
ple, the nearer we approach the foun- 
tain head of history the purer seems the 
knowledge of divine things. The his- 
tory of very ancient nations — and we 
can hardly except the early Hebrew — 
records a loss of spiritual truth. 

The following hymn, addressed to the 
mediator, God, (see Excursus iv,) taken 
from the Assyrian tablets, transmits the 
faith of the ancient Akkadian and of 
the later Chaldean-Babylonian on the 
subject of the resurrection: — 

" Great lord of the land, king of coun- 
tries, eldest son of Hea, who dost lead 
(in their periodic movements) heaven 
and earth — great lord of the land, king 
of countries, god of gods, servant of 
Anna and Moul-ge, (that is, of heaven 
and earth,) the merciful one among 
the gods — the merciful one who dost 
raise the dead to life: Silik — mou- 
lou-khi, king of heaven and earth, king 
of Babylon . . . strengthen heaven and 
earth. . .strengthen death and life. . . . 
Thou art the favourable Colossus. 
Thou art he who quickens. Thou art 
he who makes to prosper — the merciful 
one among the gods, the merciful one 
who raises the dead to life." — Lexor- 
MA.NT, La Magie, ibid. Compare George 
Smith's Assyrian Discoveries, 202, 203. 

In the proximity of IdumaBa was an- 
other great people with whom the im- 



mortality of the soul had ever been a 
cardinal doctrine of faith. Even if 
most of the Semitic races of Arabia, 
Babylonia, and Phenicia, while retain- 
ing other spiritual knowledge, h*d lost 
that of the resurrection of the body, 
Egypt, it now appears, possessed it, 
though in a modified form. "With the 
Egyptian, in contradistinction even to 
the Hebrew, the body was the subject 
of anxious consideration after death. 
Its preservation, as all will admit, was 
for some reason essential to the weal 
of the soul. (See note, chap, iii, 14; 
also Buxsex, Egypt's Place, etc., iv, 651.) 
In the fable of Osiris it was taught 
" that the souls of dead persons, whose 
bodies had been properly embalmed, 
descended into hades [the invisible 
world, see Excursus on Sheol] in the 
boat of the setting sun ; and that after 
some long period, during which they had 
many trials to undergo, they would rise 
again perfectly pure to reunite with the 
body in the boat of the rising sun. Aby- 
dos then took its name, which means 
' the city of the resurrection, ' because 
at the time it was the highest point up 
the river to which the valley had been 
explored, and therefore the place where, 
according to the fable, the resurgent 
souls would first reach Egypt. It was, 
moreover, the doctrine of this fable that 
Osiris reigned supreme (both as god 
and king) over the entire destinies of 
the bodies and souls of the dead. He 
especially presided over the resurrec- 
tion. Therefore it was that his city was 
named Abydos, the city (or place) of 
the resurrection." — Osburx, Monument- 
al History of Egypt, i, 332. 

" The deceased was to be resuscitated 
after this subterranean pilgrimage : the 
soul was to re-enter the body again to 
give it movement and life, or, to use 
the language of Egyptian mythology, 
the deceased was to arrive finally at 
the boat of the sun, to be received there 
by Ra, the scarabaeus god, and to 
shine with a brightness borrowed from 
him." — Lexormaxt, Ancient History, i, 
321. "In general, the greater part of 
the funereal ceremonies, the various 
wrappers of the mummies, the subjects 
painted on the interior or exterior of the 
coffins, have reference to the different 



133 



JOB. 



phases of the resurrection, such as the 
cessation of the corpse-like rigidity, the 
reviving of the organs, the return of 
the soul." (Ibid., i, 311.). Compare chap, 
civ and clxix of the Book of the Dead, 
in the latter of which occurs the prayer, 
" Make his soul in his body again," etc. 

The Yedas now satisfy the student 
that the Aryan race — between whom 
and the Semitic there was originally 
intercommunication of religious light as 
well as probably a primeval oneness of 
language — had some knowledge of a 
resurrection, though probably not so 
full and clear as that of the Egyptian 
and the Assyrian. "It is incontest- 
able," says Burnouf, (Essai surle Veda, 
p. 438,) " that all ancient India believed 
in the possibility of the resurrection of 
the dead." Tor the formula of the resur- 
rection, see Arid., 436, 437. 

The ancient Persian has been sup- 
posed by the Rationalists of the day to 
have been the great depository from 
which Job gained his ideas of Satan- 
ology ; and, later, Israel its knowledge 
of the resurrection. On this account 
they have been disposed to ascribe a 
later origin to the book of Job. But 
the Parsee now seems to have been less 
enlightened than either the Egyptian 
or the Assyrian. On the cardinal doc- 
trines just referred to, Job appears to 
have had fewer points in common with 
the Persian than with his other neigh- 
bours. Those well qualified to form an 
opinion deny that there are any traces 
of the resurrection in the Avesta — the 
sacred books of the Parsee. (See Hard- 
wick, Christ and other Masters, ii, 426.) 
If Job had not some distinct conception 
of the revivifying of the dead body, he, 
the most enlightened of the Gentile 
world, and evidently possessed of a 
wide culture, falls below his contem- 
poraries and neighbours, both Egyptian 
and Assyrian. If he had such knowl- 
edge, the words before us — the marvel- 
lous inscription — can be interpreted on 
no other hypothesis than that of a 
communication of his faith, which in- 
finitely outshone that of any ancient 
religion whose light still liugers among 
men. The faith according to which 
the patriarchs lived and died, (Heb. xi, 
13,) probably embraced a belief in the 



future reunion of soul and body. Joseph 
certainly could not have been ignorant 
of this marked feature of Egyptian lore. 
This is manifested in his remarkable 
care for his own mummy, "his bones," 
which he commanded to have buried 
with his brethren in the land of promise 
and hope. (Heb. xi, 22.) The sun of a 
primeval revelation shed its light upon 
the human race as a whole ; and He- 
brew, Idumsean, Egyptian, and Assyrian 
enjoyed its quickening power, though 
subsequently in different degrees, be- 
cause of the darkening and destructive 
influences of idolatry, into which some 
of them sank. If the seventh from 
Adam, of a line prior to the select 
Abrahamic race, overlooked the cen- 
turies and beheld the Lord coming to 
judgment, (Jude 14,) it is not unreason- 
able to suppose that the patient sufferer 
of Uz may have overlooked the grave 
and seen the same Lord standing trium- 
phantly upon the dust of an entire race, 
and summoning soul and body to re- 
newed and united life. 

CHAPTER XX. 
Zophar' s Second Reply. 
1. The strange composure of Job, 
his consciousness of innocency, and his 
faith in G-od, instead of winning the 
sympathy, have served only to cut to 
the quick the heart of his antagonist. 
None are more disposed to deal in de- 
nunciation than they who have been 
wounded in vanity by being worsted in 
argument. Exasperated by Job's al- 
lusion, in his closing exhortation, to 
the sword and the judgment, Zophar 
wields the terrors of the law, and con- 
ceives that he is doing God service by 
such maintenance of His truth. In the 
vivid and masterly portraiture of the 
wicked rich man Zophar evidently has 
his eye on Job, and in describing the 
doom of wealth gotten by fraud and rap- 
ine, he more than insinuates that this 
is the secret of Job's trouble. Com- 
plete destruction has come upon him 
because there was no limit to his greed. 
Job's fervent appeal to a future life, 
with all its resources of hope and de- 
liverance, is offset by the fate of the 
godless wretch who, hurled from the 



CHAPTER XX. 



139 



CHAPTER XX. 

THEN answered Zophar the Naaraa- 
thite, and said, 2 Therefore do 
my thoughts cause me to answer, and 
for this 1 1 make haste. 3 I have heard 
the check of my reproach, and the spir- 
it of my understanding causeth me to 
answer. 4 Knowest thou not this of 



1 Heb. my haste is in me. a Psa. 37. 35, 

2 Heb. Ji'om near. 



summit of worldly prosperity, is con- 
sumed by a fire unkindled by human 
breath. The moral of Zophar's address 
is, that Job, instead of talking piously, 
would much better give himself to re- 
pentance. 

The Introduction announces the 
theme of the following discourse. The 

JUBILEE OF THE WICKED IS ONLY OF 
SHORT DURATION, 2-5. 

2. Therefore — The threatened judg- 
ment with which Job closes rouses 
Zophar's fiery indignation, and colours 
his entire reply; the judgment Job 
threatens, lies in wait for himself. For 
this, etc. — Literally, because of my fer- 
vour (also, haste) within me. The cog- 
nate word in the Arabic, " boil with 
heat," furnishes the true meaning of 
fcj^rir fervour, heat. 

3. The check of my reproach — 
Literally, chicling of my shame, that 
is, the chiding which tends to his 
shame — a similar phrase to that of 
"the chastisement of our peace," Isa. 
liii, 5 — the chastisement that produces 
our peace. My shameful rebuke must I 
hear. Of my understanding — From 
or out of. Zophar prides himself upon 
representing " the individual reason, as 
Bildad represents the collective tradi- 
tional wisdom of the race." — Evans. 

4. Knowest thou this — This gives 
the only sign of a reply that either he or 
his friends deign to make to the grand 
confession of faith, / know, etc. (Chap, 
xix, 25-27.) Zophar regarded Job as a 
consummate hypocrite, and worthy of 
fiercest rebuke, rather than of " the com- 
munion of saints." In this lies, probably, 
their profound silence with regard to 
Job's proposed inscription on the rock. 
Or. if Zophar reply at all, it is to remind 
Job that the coming of the Goel shall 
be to take vengeance on the wicked, 
such as Job, (verse 26,) and hence the 



old, since man was placed upon earth, 
5 a That the triumphing of the wicked 
is 2 short, and the joy "of the hypocrite 
but for a moment ? 6 b Though his ex- 
cellency mount up to the heavens, and 
his head reach unto the 3 clouds ; 7 Yet 
he shall perish for ever c like his own 
dung: they which have seen him shall 



&Isa. 14. 13, 14; Obad. 3, 4. 3 Heb. cloud, 

c Psa. 83. 10. 



greater reason why he should repent- 
Job's wisdom is not " from eternity," 
nor does it date back to the creation of 
man, as is evident from his not know- 
ing that the triumphing of the wicked 
is short. The question is intensely iron- 
ical. Job knows so much of what will 
take place after death, and yet knows 
nothing of this world. He knows that 
G-od cares for " the dust " of such hyp- 
ocrites as he, and yet does not. know 
that tr e triumphing of the wicked is for 
a moment. If with his " understand- 
ing " he grasp the eternity to come, he 
must have been from eternity himself. 

5. Hypocrite — Ungodly. Job's tri- 
umphant faith is but " the triumphing 
of the wicked," and "the joy of the un- 
godly." These are the rough, spiteful 
stones which Zophar hurls at the ex- 
ultant confession chiseled upon the ev- 
erlasting rock. Moment — Literally, 
the twinkling of an eye. Compare 1 Cor. 
xv, 52. The Hebrew regali corresponds 
to our word moment. A moment, phi- 
lologically, is simply a movement. 

First strophe expands the aphorism 
just announced, (4, 5,) — Like a lofty 
tree, he may mount up to heaven, yet with 
ignominy, and, suddenly, shall he perish, 
and his wealth be swept away with him, 
(6-11.) 

6. Excellency — In the seuse of 
height or exaltation. 

7. Like his own dung — Hirtzel ren- 
ders the first clause : " According to Ids 
greatness so shall he perish forever." So 
that "his destruction is the greater even 
as he himself is greater," (Ewald,) which 
is properly discarded by Dillmann as 
inconsistent with the 'Hebrew use of 
words. In order to relieve the harsh- 
ness of the figure, "Wetzstein tells us 
that in the Haurau and Arabia the dung 
of cows is gathered by women and 
children for fuel. It is mixed with water 



140 



JOB. 



say, Where is he? 8 He shall fly away 
"as a dream, and shall not be found: 
yea, he shall be chased away as a vision 
of the night. 9 e The eye also which 
saw him shall see him no more ; neither 
shall his place any more behold him. 
10 4 His children shall seek to please 
the poor, and his hands f shall restore 



tfPsa. 73. 20; 90. 5. eChap. 7. 8,10; 8. 18; 

Psa. 37. 36; 103. 16. 4 Or, The poor shall op- 
press his children. — -J Verse 18. 

and chopped straw, pressed into the 
shape of cakes, which are piled up in 
a circular form, arid used as a kind of 
storehouse until needed for the fire. 
The flame is without odour, and the 
ashes pure as our own wood ashes. 
Delitzsch and Umbreit read as in the 
Authorized Version. The figure ex- 
presses the utmost contempt for Job, 
his immortality, and his future vision of 
God, and, in itself, would not be ex- 
ceptionable to Oriental ears. 2 Kings 
ix, 37 ; Ezek. iv, 12 ; Zeph. i, 11. 

9. The eye — Literally, An eye has 
looked upon him ; it does it not again. The 
elevation of the wicked made him the 
object of a brief but earnest gaze. The 
same Hebrew verb reappears in xxviii, 1 
and in Cant, i, 6 — " the sun hath scanned 
me." This verse furnishes a striking 
paraphrase of verse 5 — ''for a moment " 
— the pith of the aphorism. His place 
— See note on vii, 10. 

10. Seek to please the poor — 
Some adopt the marginal reading, but 
the text is preferable. So low are they 
reduced that they fawn upon the poor, 
lest the latter take revenge for the mis- 
doings of the parents of the former. 
Their goods — His substance, that is, 
extorted wealth. 

11. The sin of his youth — Liter- 
ally, secret things. Hitzig and many 
moderns render 1E-W> secret sins, (see 

Psa. xc, 8,) though others prefer youth, 
in the sense of "youthful vigour." The 
latter sense, then, would give the idea 
that prematurely the wicked man de- 
f cends to the grave. The root ofthe word 
'halam, (from which is 'holam, eternity, 
" the hidden,") means both to hide and 
to be young. Even if the latter mean- 
ing be accepted, it may as properly 
nxan youthful sin as 3^outhful vigour. 



their goods. 1 1 His bones are full of 
s the sin of his youth, h which shall lie 
d own with him in the dust. 1 2 Though 
w ickedness be sweet in his mouth, though 
he hide it under his tongue ; 13 Though 
he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep 
it still 6 within his mouth; 14 Yet his 
meat in his bowels is turned, it is ' the 



C Chap. 13. 26; Psa. 25. 7. ft Chap. 21. 26. 

5Heb. in the midst of his palate. iDeut. 

32. 24 ; Rom. 3. 13. 

Job had spoken of hope descending 
with him to the bars of sheol, and of 
rest in the dust, (xvii, 16.) " No !" says 
Zophar, " your secret sins shall lie down 
with you in the dust — the grave shall 
be no place of rest." It were bad 
enough if, like a wound in the body, 
sin left simply a scar upon the soul. 
But sin is a poison, as Zophar proceeds 
to show. It enters into man's entire 
being, until he may be said to be '' full " 
of it. So subtle is the virus that it 
penetrates every tissue. The sins of 
youth make themselves felt in subse- 
quent years through premature old age, 
the ruin of health, manifold regret rip- 
ening into remorse, and the general 
wreck of our moral being. Youth is 
strangely a period of weakness, and 
pre-eminently one of temptation; but 
nature utters aloud her notes of warn- 
ing, and the voice of the Lord God 
walking also in this paradise, may be 
heard affectionately cautioning the soul 
against eating of forbidden fruit. 

Second strophe — The epicure in wick- 
edness aivakes in agony to find the secret 
tidbits of sin changed into most deadly 
poison, and his sweetest delights proved 
to be germs of a signal destruction, 12-16. 

13. Forsake it not — Will not let it 
go. Like a bonbon which one dissolves 
in his mouth. (Penan.) So sweet is 
the poisonous mouthful that he is 
" sparing of it," and retairs it long " in 
the midst of his palate." The reader 
will recall the gormand (Philoxenus) 
who wished he had a neck as long as 
that of a crane, that he might prolong 
the taste of his food. Through five varia- 
tions Zophar rings the one thought, the 
deliciousness of sin. The terrible se- 
quel is thus made the more striking. 

14. His meat — His food, that is, the 
wickedness he had eaten. Turned — 



CHAPTER XX. 



141 



gall of asps within him. 15 He hath 
swallowed down riches, and he shall 
vomit them up again: God shall cast 
them out of his belly. 16 He shall suck 
the poison of asps: the viper's tongue 
shall slay him. 17 He shall not see 
k the rivers, 6 the floods, the brooks of 
honey and butter. 1 8 That which he 



£Psa. 36. 9; Jer. 17. 6. 6 Or, strewmint 

brooks. 1 Verses 10, 15. 7 Hebrew, accord 



Changed into poison. Canon Cook cites 
from an Arab poet, " crime may be en- 
joyed, but not digested." The gall of 
asps — It was the opinion of the an- 
cients that " the gall constituted the 
venom of serpents." — Pliny, Natural 
History, xi, 75. The asp (pethen) is 
supposed by some to have been the 
bceten of the Arab, which is thus de- 
scribed by Forskal: " Spotted all over 
with black and white ; a foot long, and 
about twice as thick as one's thumb ; 
oviparous ; the bite is instantly fatal, 
and causes the body to swell." 

15. Riches — One of the "Forty-two 
Points of Instruction," a small Tibetan 
work, delivered by Buddha, is, "The 
man who seeks riches is like a child 
that, with the sharp point of a knife, 
attempts to eat honey ; ere he has time 
to relish the sweetness that has but 
touched his lips, nothing remains to him 
but the poignant pain of a cut in the 
tongue." 

16. The viper — EpWha. Tristram 
(Nat Hist.) identifies it with the sand- 
viper, a species of small size, about a 
foot long, varying in colour and com- 
mon in Arabia and Syria. He frequent- 
ly found it in winter under stones by the 
shores of the Dead Sea. It is very 
rapid and active in its movements. 
Though highly poisonous, it is not so 
much dreaded as the fatal cobra or 
cerastes. The viper's tongue — 
" Though biting with his teeth the 
viper appears to bite with the tongue, 
for it bites with tongue extended." — 
Hengstenberg. Not unlike the bite of 
the serpent, sin brings at once suf- 
fering and incipient death. Thus 
Plato corrects the saying of Hesiod, 
"that punishment closely follows sin;" 
it being, as he says, born at the same 
time with it. Whoever expects pun- 
ishment already suffers it. Whoever 



laboured for ' shall he restore, and shall 
not swallow it down : 7 according to his 
substance shall the restitution be, and 
he shall not rejoice therein. 19 Be- 
cause he hath 8 oppressed and hath for- 
saken the poor; because he hath vio- 
lently taken away a house which he 
builded not ; 20 m Surely he shall not 

ina to the substance of his exchange. 8 He- 
brew, crushed. mEccles. 5. 13, 14. 



has deserved it, expects it. (Seneca, 
Epis., 105.) 

Third strophe — The wicked had count- 
ed upon perennial resources of bliss — 
"rivers of honey and butter 1 ' 1 — only to 
find himself stripped of all his ill-gotten 
good, and himself the defenceless prey of 
the victims of his own insatiable greed, 
17-22. 

17. Not see the rivers — See note 
xxix, 6. n^T with 2 implies joy in be- 
holding. To the Oriental a river has 
ever been an emblem of felicity. In 
the paradise of Mohammed "are rivers 
of incorruptible water, and rivers of 
milk, the taste whereof changeth not; 
and rivers of wine, pleasant unto those 
who drink; and rivers of clarified 
honey." — Koran, Sur, xlvii. The 
butter was either cream, or simply 
curdled milk in a semi-liquid state. 

18. Laboured for — The fruit of la- 
bour ; but not necessarily his labour. 
According to his substance, etc. — 
Delitzsch and Zockler render this diffi- 
cult passage : " According to the rich- 
es he hath gotten (literally, " of his ex- 
change,") shall he not rejoice ? " Hirt- 
zel, Welte, etc., agree with the Author- 
ized Version. ThusRenan: "His res- 
titutions shall equal his riches;" which 
is but a feeble enlargement of the first 
clause of the verse. The word rniDfl 

will be better rendered recompense, as 
in xv, 31, According to his riches shall 
his recompense be, and he shall not re- 
joice. "Zophar enters now more par- 
ticularly into the cause of the fate of the 
ungodly ; and placing guilt and punish- 
ment together, seeks to bring into view 
the divine jus talionis,'''' [law of retribu- 
tion.] — Hengstenberg. 

19. A house which he builded not 
— Literally, A house hath he plundered, 
but he shall not build it up. " House " 



142 



JOB. 



9 feel quietness in his belly, he shall 
not save of that which he desired. 
21 10 There shall none of his meat be 
left ; therefore shall no man look for his 
goods. 22 In the fulness of his suffi- 
ciency he shall be in straits : every hand 

9 Hebrew, know. 10 Or, There shall be none 

left for his meat. 11 Or, troublesome. 



of the » wicked shall come upon him. 
23 When he is about to fill his belly, 
God shall cast the fury of his wrath 
upon him, and shall rain it upon him 
n while he is eating. 24 ° He. shall flee 
from the iron weapon, and the bow of 



is used collectively for houses. The 
prerogative of the wicked is, that they 
destroy; (Eccles. ix, 18 ;) for them there 
is no counterpart, such as of " building 
up." He finally fails in all his desires 
and efforts, for they are founded in 
wrong. 

20. That which he desired — Be- 
cause he knew no rest in his craving, (lit- 
erally, belly,) he shall not escape with his 
dearest; meaning, perhaps, the children 
of Job. Hitzig strains the Hebrew when 
he translates it, " what he desires, es- 
capes him not." In this and the preced- 
ing verses Zophar insinuates that Job 
was extortionate and grasping ; this 
accounted for the completeness -of the 
destruction. 

21. His goods — Nothing escaped his 
devouring. Tlierefore his good, y\\2, shall 
not endure. " By the word good is in- 
tended his summum bonum, or what 
seer ied such to the bad man. It sounds 
like a sentence of judgment after the 
arraignment in the previous items." — 
Tayler Lewis. Kindred is the expres- 
sion of Milton's fallen angel : — 

" Evil, be thou my good." 

22. The wicked — P7DJJ, wretched. 

Covetousness, which is the idolatry of 
wealth, shrivels the soul, and converts 
the imagination into an engine of ter- 
ror. The fear of want comes upon the 
soul like "a strong man armed." A 
guilty conscience sees in every man 
an enemy, " an officer in every bush," 
every hand of the wretched comes upon 
him. 

Fourth strophe — Heaven and earth 
conspire to make the doom of the wicked 
complete and inevitable, 23-28. 

23. About to fill his belly— Liter- 
ally, It shall be to fill his belly. God 
shall cast — Rather, he casts on him the 
fury of his wrath, and causes (it) to rain 
upon him with his food. While he is 



%Num. 11. 33: Psa. 78. 30, 31. olsa. 24. 18; 

Jer. 48. 43 ; Amos 5. 19. 

eating — Literally, in his food. WiHpi 

bowels, (Hitzig,) flesh, (Delitzsch.) The 
employment of unusual words leads 
Delitzsch to remark, " the morally indig- 
nant speech, which threatens punish- 
ment, intentionally seeks after rare sol- 
emn words and darksome tones." But 
a little while ago the wicked hid dainty 
morsels of wickedness under his tongue, 
which were too delicious to swallow, 
(verses 1 2, 13 ;) now his food is mixed 
with the wrath of God, which he, per- 
force, must swallow. " As he could 
never be satisfied with sensuous goods, 
(verse 20,) God will satisfy him — with 
his punishments." — Hirtzel. The Par- 
thians poured melted gold down the 
throat of the greedy Roman general 
Crassus, whom they had defeated and 
slain. — Rawlinson, Sixth Monarchy, 

p.lT5. The firstword, \T, is jussive, like 

the expressions "casts " and " causes to 
rain," and indicates the speaker's ac- 
quiescence in the retributions of G-od. 
They are a kind of amen to the divine 
will. 

2-4. Bow of steel — Not steel, but 
brass or copper. As bronze tools were 
used for engraving or sculpturing the 
rocks, and even in working the quarries, 
the ancient Egyptian must have pos- 
sessed some lost art for tempering cop- 
per. "Wilkinson found a chisel at Thebes 
with very little alloy; of 100 parts, 
94.0 being copper, 5.9 tin, 0.1 iron, 
the point of which was intact, while 
the top was turned over by the blows 
it had received from the mallet. — Anc. 
Egypt, P. A., ii, 158. The verse evi- 
dently contains a proverb similar to 
the classic Scylla and Charybdis. Com- 
pare Amos v, 19 ; Isa. xxiv, 18. The 
German would say, " He escapes from 
the smoke, but falls into the fire." 
Nothing could escape him, and he can- 
not escape his fate. 



CHAPTER XX. 



143 



Bteel shall strike him through. 25 It 
is drawn, and cometh out of the body ; 
yea, p the glittering sword cometh out 
of his gall : q terrors are upon him. 
26 All darkness shall be hid in his se- 
cret places : r afire not blown shall con- 
sume him ; it shall go ill with him that 
is left in his tabernacle. 27 The 8 heav- 
en shall reveal his iniquity ; and the 



V Chap. 16. 13. q Chap. 18. 11. r Psa. 21. 9. 

— *• Psa. 44. 20, 21 ; Judges 49. 23 ; Malachi 3. 5 ; 



25. It is drawn, etc. — Literally, He 
draweth it, (the arrow.) The glitter- 
ing sword cometh . . . gall — Better, It 
cometh forth from the body, (some read 
back ;) even the glittering blade from out 
his gall. Terrors upon him — Rather, 
He gosth, terrors upon him. The draw- 
iug of the glittering sword (literally, 
lightning) from the gall must have been 
fatal. Thus he goct/i — dies ; the Arab 
would say, '"Departs to his own place." 
Acts i, 25. Schultens says, " The word 
' goeth,' standing by itself, adds new 
weight." 

26. His secret places — All darkness 
shall be hid in his treasures. Darkness 
is used for dark fate, calamity. He 
hides (tsaphan) his treasures; God 
hides (taman) with them his darkness. 
The fate of each sinner embodies the 
" divine irony in the Nemesis of his- 
tory." Compare Prov. i, 24-81 ; Psa. 
ii, 2-4. " Each time the wicked lays 
his unjust goods by, God lays something 
by till at last the time of exchange 
comes, treasure for treasure." — Heng- 
stenberg. A fire not blown — The 
Septuagint has, " fire that burns not 
out," irvp unavGTov. A fire that God 
has kindled, and not man, therefore 
said to be, not blown. Deut. xxxii, 22. 
"Wickedness is a self-igniting fire," it 
carries within itself the elements of de- 
struction. The punishment of sin is in 
part the letting loose of its own de- 
structive nature. It shall go ill — It 
shall destroy that which survives in his 
tent. Others read as in the text, (A. V.) 

27. The heaven. . .and the earth 
— Zophar may have had in mind Job's 
appeal to the heaven and earth, (xvi, 
18, 19.) With the good man, Eliphaz 
had said, (v, 22, 23.) all nature stands 
iu loving concord : against the bad man, 
adds Zophar, the heavens aud the earth 



earth shall rise up against him. 28 The 
increase of his house shall depart, und 
his goods shall flow away in the day of 
his wrath. 29 ' This is the portion of 
a wicked man from God, and the heri- 
tage 12 appointed unto him by God. 

CHAPTEE XXL 
UT Job answered and said, 2 Hear 



B 



Luke 12. 2, 3; Romans 2. 16. 1 Chap. 27. 13; 

31. 2,3. 12 Hebrew, of his decree from God. 

(as in Job's case, chaps, i. ii) rise in 
dread conspiracy. The catastrophe of 
the wicked serves to bring to light their 
secret sins, a truth he bends into a 
boomerang to hurl at Job. Nature has 
no burial place for sin. God's word is 
pledged that all sin shall finally be 
brought forth to the light. The earth, 
unwilling to tolerate the sinner any 
longer, is represented as risiDg up 
against him. The new heaven and the 
new earth (Rev. xxi, 1) cannot be in- 
augurated until the last sinner has been 
cast forth from his grave. 

28. Omit "and his goods." The 
subject of ninaj, flowing away, is not 

expressed. " Like waters poured forth, 
his all flows away." — Cocceius. The 
figure of the text is rugged and grand, 
perhaps taking its rise in vivid tradi- 
tions of the deluge, in which the wealth 
of the world in like manner dissolved 
and flowed away. The gain of the 
ungodly is equally unsubstantial, and 
liable to be irrecoverably destroyed. 
Seeiv, 19; xxii, 16; comp. Prov. xxiii, 5. 

29. The closing verse, for the greater 
emphasis, lies outside of the strophic ar- 
rangement as in chap. v. 27. Appoint- 
ed unto him — Literally, And the heri- 
tage of his word from God. Word, in the 
sense of appointment. Such a doom 
brought upon the wicked by his own 
sins is spoken from God. For he is the 
author of the scheme that entails such 
results. 

CHAPTER XXL 
Job's Sixth Reply. Chap. xxi. 
1. But Job answered — The friends 
have to the last adhered to their main 
proposition, that the wicked are pun- 
ished in this life. Job now meets it for 
the first time face to lace : devoting the 



144 



JOB. 



diligently my speech, and let this be 
your consolations. 3 Suffer me that 
I may speak ; and after that I have 
spoken, a mock on. 4 As for me, is 
my complaint to man ? and if it were 
so, why should not my spirit be troub- 



a Chap. 16. 10; 17.2.- 
Heb. Look unto me.- 



-1 Heb. shorten ed t 

-b Judges 18. 19 ; chap. 



entire speech to its consideration. He 
more discreetly than before makes an 
appeal to facts, and shows that in their 
entire life the wicked are eminently 
prosperous, and that even in the article 
of death their lot is easier than that of 
the righteous. The friends have made 
appeal again and again to the wisdom 
of the ancients ; he, on the other hand, 
summons travelers, men of wide knowl- 
edge, who testify (verses 28-33) that 
the punishment of the wicked is in the 
next life — a truth "the friends," in 
their dogmatism, have ignored; that in 
this life the wicked are above law and 
responsibility to man ; and that their 
memory, instead of perishing, as the 
friends maintained, lived on in mag- 
nificent tombs and the abiding power of 
an evil life. In thus urging the gen- 
eral prosperity of the wicked, Job has 
pv shed his plea to the extreme of dog- 
matism, and in argument committed an 
error similar to that of his opponents, 
thus leaving a gap in his defence which 
gives rise to a renewal of the contro- 
versy. It is to be remarked that the 
first of Job's discourses since his tri- 
umph of faith in the nineteenth chap- 
ter, (25-27,) like the others yet to fol- 
low, is marked by calm and dispassion- 
ate argument ; by a greater freedom 
from personalities; by a more confident 
view of the darkest phases of evil ; and 
by a faith which the darkness around 
him has no more power to disturb than 
the shadow of the night has to unset- 
tle the fastnesses of the mountain, all 
which is in itself an earnest of the vic- 
tory soon to follow. 

Exordium — If the friends will but give 
him a proper hearing, Job will speak of 
an astounding anomaly in the moral 
world, the mere contemplation of which 
fills his soid with terror, 2-6. 

2. Your consolations — The con- 
solations you give. As you have no 



led? 1 5 Mark 2 me, and be astonished, 
b and lay your hand upon your mouth. 
6 Even when I remember I am afraid, 
and trembling taketh hold on my 
flesh. * ' 

7 c Wherefore do the wicked live, be- 



29. 9; 40. 4 ; Psa. 39. 9. cChap. 12. 6; Psa. 17. 

10, 14; 73. 3, 12; Jer. 12. 1 ; Hab. 1. 16. 



other solace to administer, yield me 
what little there is in attentive listen- 
ing. The best consolation is often that 
of silence. 

3. Mock on — Literally, thou may est 
mock. He means Zophar, whose re- 
marks were thus far the most cruel and 
lacerating of all. In his would-be coup- 
de-grdce Zophar exhausted himself, and 
speaks no more. Job's individualizing 
of Zophar here, as of Eliphaz in xvi, 3, 
and of Bildad in xxvi, 2-4, spurs the 
sufferer up to the highest strains of or- 
atory. 

4. To man — To in the sense of con- 
cerning. His complaint is not in re- 
gard to man, but God, the superhuman 
source of his woe. Troubled — Liter- 
ally, shortened — the Hebrew phrasj for 
impatient. 

5. Hand upon your mouth — (Com- 
pare chap, xl, 4; Prov. xxx, 32 ; Mieah 
vii, 16.) The Egyptian mode of indicat- 
ing silence was by placing the hand on 
the mouth. One of their deities, Horus, 
is represented as a child seated on a lotus 
leaf with his finger on his lips. This at- 
titude however, Wilkinson thinks, whs 
only illustrative of his extreme yoinh. 

6. Even when I remember— Ver- 
ity if I think upon it. The thoughts 
with which he is burdened arraign the 
administration of God, and cause ■ him 
to shudder. 

Main division— The divine admin- 
istration OF AWARDS IN THIS WORLD 
TENDS TO CONFOUND MORAL DISTINC- 
TIONS, 1-26. 

First half— The wicked defy God, 
AND YET God prospers them even 

UNTO SHEOL, 7-16. 

First strophe — Instead of suffering 
punishment, as Zophar maintained., the 
wicked live, grow old surrounded by their 
families, and safe from the discipline of 
Heaven, 7-11. 

7. Wherefore do the wicked live 



CHAPTER XXI. 



U5 



come old, yea, are mighty in power? 
8 Their seed is established in their 
sight with them, and their offspring be- 
fore their eyes. 9 Their houses 3 are 
safe from fear, d neither ia the rod of 



3Heb. are peace from fear. 



— Zophar's assertion (xx, 5,) calls forth 
the counter thesis of this verse. The 
existence of evil is a mystery, among 
the first to perplex and the last to leave 
the mind. The question why the wicked 
live is but one of its phases, and is of 
personal interest, for it concerns our- 
selves. The question does not so oft- 
en assume the form why we should 
live, as why others should, whom we 
suppose to be much more depraved 
than ourselves. Its solution is much 
simplified if we confine the thought to 
ourselves, for extreme wickedness is 
but the outgrowth of a nature that we 
share in common with the wicked. In 
such case of reflection upon ourselves 
and others there will readily be sug- 
gested : 1. The possibilities for good in 
all moral existence ; 2. That the free- 
dom of the will devolves upon the hu- 
man agent the responsibility of per- 
verted life ; and, 3. Perfection of beiug 
can seemingly be secured only amid the 
most adverse influences of trial, for 
Christ himself was made " perfect 
through suffering," one large element 
of which was meted out at the hand of 
the wicked. Science resolves its neb- 
ulas; but this cloud of mystery defies 
all resolution, and may continue so to do 
forever. Goethe has said profoundly, 
" Man is not born to solve the mystery 
of existence, but he must nevertheless 
attempt it, that he may learn to keep 
within the limits of the knowable." 
For Plutarch's views on the protracted 
life of the wicked, see Math. Quar. Rev., 
1852, pp. 399-101 ; or Bib. Sacra, 1856, 
pp. 616-619. 

8. Their offspring — The children of 
the wicked live on, while his own are 
dead. The thought which he twice re- 
peats in this verse, and which he re- 
sumes in the 11th, by contrast points 
most pathetically to the darkest phase 
of his inexpressible calamity, of which 
it is to be remarked he never directly 
speaks. This very silence, more elo- 

Vol. V.— 11 



God upon them. 10 Their bull gen- 
dereth, and faileth not; their cow calv- 
eth, and e casteth not her calf. 1 1 They 
send forth their little ones like a flock, 
and their children dance. 1 2 They take 

d Psa. 73. 5. eExod. 23. 26. 

quent than words, is the natural out- 
growth of untold calamity, (vi, 3.) The 
naturalness of the book, seemingly be- 
yond the power of invention, must im- 
press the reader at every step. 

9. The rod of God — In the senso 
of scourge. Same as in ix, 34. 

10. Comp. Gen. xxxi, 38; Ex. xxiii, 26. 

11. Like a flock — His wounded 
heart conceives of the choicest of God's 
gifts under the beautiful figure of a 
flock. Epiphanius has observed that 
in the early ages of the world the child 
rarely died before the parent. Hence 
the enphasis laid upou the death of 
Haran before that of his father, Terah, 
(Gen. xi, 28,) who, he thinks, was thus 
punished for his idolatry. (Josh, xxiv, 
2, 14.) The thought of his dead fami- 
ly must have added to the perplexities 
of Job, and may account some what for 
his confusion as to the moral govern- 
ment of God. Children dance — Tp~l, 

'-T 

jump about, (Delitzsch.) like the young 
of the flocks. The children of the wick- 
ed disport themselves under the skies 
(this is implied by ^nJ>W\ they send 

them forth, namely, out of doors) like 
the sheep of the pastures. (Umbreit.) 
There is no evidence that their diversion 
corresponded to the modern dance. The 
harmless frolicking of the children was 
simply one of the features of domestic 
happiness that crowned the homes of 
the wicked. While the passage has no 
bearing on the question of dancing, as 
such, it is not unworrhy of remark that 
the moralist, having in view the well- 
being of the soul, has ever felt himself 
called upou to condemn dancing as 
practiced in modern times. 

Second strophe — Contrary to all de- 
sert, and defiant of God, Hie wicked attain 
to the highest earthly good, not through 
titemselves, bibt by the agency of God — a di- 
vine enigma from which the soul recoils, 
but without suspense of faith, 12-16. 

1 2. They take— Literally, They lift 

O. T. 



146 



JOB. 



the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the 

/Chap. 



up (the voice) with the 
tabret, etc. The tim- 
brel — Toph, (comp. 
Gen. xxxi,. 27,) ap- 
pears to have been 
a small hand drum, 
such as was known 
among the ancient 
Egyptians, Assyri- 
ans, and Hebrews. 
It is still in use in the 
East, and is called 
by the Arabians, doff; 
in Spanish, adufe. 
The ancient Egyp- 
tian drum, according 
to Engel, was from 
two to three feet in 
length, and covered 
with parchment, like 
our own, and was 
beaten by the hands 
at both ends. The 




EGYPTIAN DRUM. 

harp — Kinnor, 
supposed by Wil- 
kinson to have 
been the lyre, 
was probably the 
earliest musical 
instrument in- 
vented by man. 
Gen. iv, 21. 




The annexed 
engraving is of 
one of the fig- 
ures in an Egyp- 
tian painting dis- 
covered in a tomb 
at Beni-Hassan. 
It represents the 
arrival and intro- 
duction of one 
of a company of 
foreigners to the owner of the tomb, 
who was evidently one of the princi- 
pal officers of the reigning Pharaoh. 
Wilkinson surmises that they may be 



THE HARP. 



sound of the organ. 13 They f spend 



Jews, and not improbably of the fam- 
ily of Jacob. All the men wear beards, 
contrary to the custom of the Egyptians. 
The last two accompany a laden ass, one 
of them holding a bow and club, the other 
(as in the engraving) a lyre, which he 
plays with the plectrum. (Ancient Egyp- 
tians, ii, p. 296.) See note, Gen. xlvii, 2. 
Organ — 2J1V, 'hougab, was a perfo- 
rated wind instrument of some kind, 
probably the pipe. (Gen. iv, 21.) It 
seems to have been known to most an- 
cient nations. There has been discov- 
ered in the ruins of Susa a figure in 




THE PIPE. 

baked clay representing a female play- 
ing upon a pipe. (Engel, Music of Most 
Ancient Nations, p. 77.) Thus we have 
the three different representative kinds 
of musical instruments: first, of percus- 
sion; secondly, stringed instruments; 
and, thirdly, wind instruments. 

1 3. Spend their days — " They wear 
out" — make the most of life. "In 
connexion with this, one thinks of a 
coat which is not laid aside until it is 



CHAPTER XXI. 



U7 



their days 4 in wealth, and in a moment 
go down to the grave. 14 g Therefore 
they say unto God, Depart from us ; 
for we desire not the knowledge of thy 
ways. 15 h What is the Almighty, that 
we should serve him ? and ' what profit 
should we have, if we pray unto him ? 
16 Lo, their good is not in their hand : 



4 Or, in mirth. o-Chap. 22. 17. /iExod. 

5. 2 ; chap. 34. 9. tChap. 35. 3; Mai. 3. 14. 

fcCliap. 22. 18; Psa. 1. 1; Prov. 1. 10. J Chap. 

18. i5. 5 Or, lamp. 



entirely worn out." — Delitzsch. Wealth 
y\\2i — Septuagint, good things. Dives 
also had his "good things." The life 
and burial of Dives have several points 
in common with Job's description of 
the wicked rich man. In a moment — 
Their lot brings no grievous protracted 
sickness — " there are no bands in their 
death." Having no idea of repentance, 
and no sense of eternal things, thej r 
evidently esteemed sudden death de- 
sirable. Suetonius tells us that August- 
us Ca3sar expired suddenly, dying a very 
easy death, and such as he himself had 
always wished for. (xcix.) The grave 
— Slieol. 

14. Therefore — Better, And yet they 
nay unto God. Depart from us — This 
is the practical language of all irrelig- 
ious life ; the language of God at the last 
day is retributively the same, Depart 
from me. " If religion cost something, 
the want of it will cost infinitely more." 
Lest after such a repulse even yet, in 
his love and mercy, he should draw nigh 
unto them, they say unto God: "We 
desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 
" They seem to take as much care to 
guard against the inroad of ideas from 
that solemn quarter as the inhabitants 
of Holland do against the irruption of 
the sea . . . they endeavour to raise the 
groves of an earthly paradise to shade 
from sight that vista which opens to 
the distance of eternity." — Jno. Foster. 
Essays, iv, l«ct. viii. 

15. What is the Almighty— The 
almost identical language of Pharaoh. 
(Ex. v, 2.) The reason for their repulse 
of God is threefold and comprehensive 
—-they desire neither his knowledge, 
service, nor worship. 

Id. Their good — This verse is par- 
enthetical. Notwithstanding their god- 
iessness, God gives them good. (The 



k the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 
17 'How oft is the 5 candle of the 
wicked put out ! and how oft cometh 
their destruction upon them ! God m dis- 
tributoth sorrows in his anger. 1 8 They 
are as n stubble before the wind, and as 
chaff that the storm 6 carrieth away. 
19 God layeth up 7 his iniquity "for his 



mi Luke 12. 46. ?iPsa. 1.4; 35. 5; Isa. 17. 13; 

29. 5; Hosea 13. 3. 6 Heb. atealeth away. 

7 That is, the punishment of his iniqui- 
ty. o Exod. 20. 5. 



same word as wealth in verse 13.) He, 
not they, is the author of their happi- 
ness, which to Job is an astounding 
feature of moral government. Astound- 
ed at himself, he adds, The counsel of the 
wicked, far be itfram me! (xxii, 18.) Job's 
exclamation is of great moment in its 
bearing upon the problem of the book, 
(i, 11 ; ii, 5.) Instead of repudiating 
God, he repudiates the entire counsel 
and views (H^V) of the wicked. Right 
in the midst of the whirlpool we still 
see the brow of the rock, and feel it is 
immovable. 

Second half of main division — Anti- 
thetic DEMONSTRATION OF THE PRE- 
CEDING PROPOSITION, DERIVED FROM 

experience, (Zockler,) 17-26. 

First strophe — Even if the pitiable 
pretence of the friends be true, tJiat the 
children of the wicked suffer if the parent 
himself does not, it does not meet the diffi- 
culty, since it is no punishment for the 
wicked man in his supreme selfishness, 
1*7-21. 

It. How oft — Bildad's assertion, 
(xviii, 5, 6 ; see note,) that the light of 
the wicked is put out, is answered by a 
question of doubt, (How oft?) in the 
sense of not often, seldom. Bildad also 
had spoken of destruction " ready at 
his side." God distributeth, etc. — 
Better, doth he in his anger distribute 
sorrows 1 Sorrows — Delitzsch and 
Umbreit render snares, in allusion to 
the great variety of snares Bildad de- 
scribes: (xviii, 8-10) but better as in 
the text. 

18. As stubble — To be read as a 
question : (how oft) are they as stubble 
before the wind ? etc. (Compare xx, 8, 9.) 

19. Iniquity — flX also signifies " ca- 
lamit}'," " wealth" — a network of mean- 



148 



JOB. 



children : lie rewardeth him, and lie 
shall know it. 20 His eyes shall see 
his destruction, and p he shall drink of 
the wrath of the Almighty. 21 For 
what pleasure Tiath he in his house after 
him, when the number of his months is 

p Psalm 75.8; Isa. 51. 17; Jer. 25. 15; Rev. 

14. 10; 19. 15. tf Isa. 40. 13; 45. 9; Rom. 11. 34; 

1 Cor. 2. 16. 

ings exceedingly suggestive. One of 
the positions taken by the friends of 
Job was, " God layeth up the iniquity of 
the wicked for his children, "(v.4,xx, 10:) 
if he does not visit it upon the parents, 
he certainly does upon the children. 
Horace has a similar thought : 

Delicta majoruin immeritus lues 
Romane. 

Thou, Roman, innocent 
Shalt suffer for the sins of thy 
ancestors. 

Cicero, on the other hand, denounces 
the principle that " if a wicked man die 
without suffering for his crimes, the 
gods should inflict a punishment on his 
children, his children's children, and all 
his posterity. {De Natura Deorum, iii, '68.) 
Job's reply commences with the second 
clause, which should read: Upon him 
(the wicked man himself) should He 
(Gr jd) requite that he may know, that is, 
feel it — the transgressor is the proper 
person to suffer. 

20. His eyes shall see — Better, 
His eyes should see . . . and he should 
drink, etc. Job is still answering the 
insufficient theorjr of substitution. It 
is right that the parent, not the child, 
should see destruction. 

21. Pleasure — YPD sometimes bears 
a wider meaning of " concern," " inter- 
est," (xxii, 3; Isa. lviii, 3,) "business." 
What inter est has he in his house (family) 
after he is dead? Their misery cannot 
trouble him, because he knows nothing 
about it. (Chap, xiv, 21; Ecc. ix, 5.) 
Is cut off. . .midst — The root idea of 
^V^n is found in Vty an arrow, and 

is kindred with the Arabic housas, 
'• speed," " swiftness of course," and 
here points to the completion of life ; 
and (if) the number of his months flows 
away, or is completed. Zockler and Dill- 
man n, with substantially the same idea, 
read: " Whilst the number of his months 
is allotted to him." All he is concerned 



cut off in the midst? 22 q Shall any 
teach God knowledge? seeing he judg- 
eth those that are high. 23 One dieth 
8 in his full strength, being wholly at 
ease and quiet. 24 His B breasts are" full 
of milk, and his bones are moistened 



8 Hebrew, in liis very perfection, or, in 
the strength of his -perfection. 9 Or, milk- 
pails. 



about is, that he may live out the 
measure of his days. A stroke of the 
brush depicts the supreme selfishness 
of the wicked. 

Second strophe — Tlie unequal distri- 
bution of earthly bliss extends to the death- 
bed, end ceases only in the grave, without, 
hoiuever, furnishing any indication of 
moral character, 22-26. 

22. Teach God knowledge — 
Prescribe to God what he ought to do ! 
(xx, 23,) who is perfectly competent to 
administer his own government. Those 
that are high — Literally, For hejudgeth 
the high, that is, angels, (iv, 18; xv, 15.) 

23. One dieth — The wicked man 
whose life of uninterrupted prosperity 
he proceeds to describe. 

24. His breasts— The Vulgate follow- 
ed the Septuagint in rendering this 
troublesome word, }TO, thus : " His 

inwards are full of fat." Furst and 
Rodwell, among others, conceive that 
the parallelism of the text demands some 
part of the human body : the former 
of them consequently rendering liatin 
" veins ; " the latter, " loins." Schlott- 
mann, on the other hand, observes that, 
" In contrast to the well-watered mar- 
row, one expects a reference to a rich, 
nutritious drink." The Hebrew word 
occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, 
and is apparently of foreign origin/per- 
haps kindred with the Arabic hatan, 
" resting places," (for herds,) an idea 
which Hitzig accepts. Delitzsch, Dill- 
mann, and Zockler read, "his troughs 
are full of milk." Our Authorized Ver- 
sion adopts the version of the Targum, 
than which Tayler Lewis thinks there 
is nothing better. Moistened with 
marrow — And the marrow of his bones 
is well watered. The human body is 
likened to the soil of the field, which is 
not suffered to dry, but is plentifully 
watered and made fruitful. (Umbreit.) 
Comp. Isa. lviii, 11. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



149 



with marrow. 25 And another dieth 
in the bitterness of his soul, and never 
eateth with pleasure. 26 They shall 
r lie down alike in the dust, and the 
worms shall cover them. 

27 Behold, I know your thoughts, 
and the devices which ye wrongfully 



r Chapter 20. 11 ; Ecclesiaates 9. 2. s Chapter 

20.7. 



25. Another— The good man. Never 
eateth, etc. — Rather, Has not enjoyed 
the good: the oft recurring i"QiLD) that 

is, the so-called greatest good of life. 

26. Alike — Together, side by side. 
"Whatever life men live, one common 
fate awaits all — to lie down together in 
the dust. What, then, argues Job, be- 
comes of the law of retribution in this 
present life ? The same difficulty per- 
plexed the Preacher, Eccles. ii, 15. 

Second division — The keport op 

TRAVELLERS IS, THAT THE PUNISHMENT 
OF THE AVICKED IS HELD IN ABEYANCE, 
27-34. 

Strophe a — If, instead of judging by 
appearances in this present life the friends 
had made more extensive research, they 
would have found thai the wicked are held 
in reserve for future punishment. The 
element of delayed punishment not only 
serves to unlock the enigma of retribution, 
but to relieve Job from dire suspicion, since 
suffering here is a criterion of virtue rather 
than of vice, 27-80. 

27. Job's argument properly closed 
with the preceding verse; but having 
perceived (so Kitto thinks) by their 
interchange of looks that they were not 
satisfied, he resumes with, " Behold, I 
know your thoughts," and proceeds 
to produce a new species of testimony, 
which they, learned men as they were, 
could not deny. 

28. The house of the prince — 
Compare xv. 34; xviii. 15 ; ix, 6, 7. His 
friends seem to him. in response to what 
they regarded as his special pleading 
for the wicked, to reply, Where is your 
own house and sumptuous pavilion ? 
Whatever God may do with the rest 
of the wicked, he certainly has pun- 
ished thee. Dwellingplaces — Liter- 
ally, Where the tent of the dwellingplaces ? 
Turning from the " house '* of city or 
town to the home of the Xomad, Job 
naturally uses the word tent, so often 



imagine against me. 28 For ye say, 
8 Where is the house of the prince? and 
where are 10 the dwellingplaces of the 
wicked? 29 Have ye not asked them 
that go by the way ? and do ye not know 
their tokens, 30 'That the wicked is 
reserved to the day of destruction ? they 



10 Hebrew, the tent of the tabernacles of the 
wicked. 1 Prov. 16. 4 ; 2 Pet. 2. 9. 



occurring in the controversy, upon 
which he enlarges to point out the 
sumptuousness of the establishment he 
means. 

29. Them that go by the way— 
"Wayfaring men," who travelled large- 
ly, probably in connexion with caravans. 
Such travellers became popular intelli- 
gencers, and were often sent for and 
consulted by kings. The routes of these 
caravans embraced even the homes of 
the patriarchs, (Gen. xxxvii, 25,) and 
thus became agencies for the diffusing 
of religious knowledge. And do ye 
not know their tokens — Know, "DJ, 

signifies find strange, that is, despise, 
(Fiirst,) or to be ignorant of, (Gesenius, 
Thes.,) or mistake. (Arnheim.) Either 
intentionally or carelessly they have 
misinterpreted the tokens of these 
travellers. These tokens were " proofs," 
"arguments," (Psa. lxxxvi, 17,) accord- 
ing to Gesenius and Dillmann, or memo- 
rabilia, " things worthy of note." (Zock- 
ler.) Hitzig conjectures that the word 
niX, token, is used metaphorically for a 
kind of tessera recognised by the host. 
A Punic passage in the "Poenulus " of 
Plautus, act v, scene i, Kenrick thus 
reads — "A sign of truth shall be the 
tessera of hospitality which I carry 
with me." (See the comment in his 
"Phoenicia," p. 181.) The report of 
these travellers is, that the punishment 
of the wicked is in the future life ; you 
(the friends) pervert it, and say that 
it is always in the present life. Thus 
Halm, Stickel; etc. 

30. The wicked is reserved to the 
day of destruction — Rosenmuller and 
Delitzsch, in order to harmonize the 
"tokens" of the wayfaring men with 
the argument of Job, have rendered the 
verb "-jCW with ■», reserved to, spared 

in, as if the substance of this report 
was, that in days of calamity the wicked 



150 



JOB. 



shall be brought forth to "the day of 
wrath. 31 Who shall declare his way 
u to his face? and who shall repay him 
what he hath done? 32 Yet shall he 
be brought to the 12 grave, and shall 
13 remain in the tomb. 33 The clods 



11 Hebrew, the day of wraths. u Galatians 

2. 11. 12 Hebrew, g raves. 



escaped. The grammatical construction 
is against such an interpretation, as Dill- 
mann admits. A like construction of the 
Kal form of the verb in xxxviii, 23, is 
quite decisive, since in the latter case 
no other interpretation is possible. The 
preposition p, to. stands on guard before 

both yoms, "days," as if divinely com- 
missioned to exclude all such parasitical 
intruders as from, in, or at, which the 
modern rendering demands. Compare 
Prov. xvi, 4 — " The wicked man for 
the day (le yom) of trouble." (See Excur- 
sus III by Tayler Lewis in Lange's Com- 
mentary on Job.) Brought forth— Same 
word as in verse 32, which see. (Corop. 
the same phrase in Isa. liii, 7 : ^ fo-T, 

"He is brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter ;" also Jer. xi, 19 ; Hos. x. 6 ; 
xii, 1, etc.) The sense of antiquity em- 
bodied in this narration of the travellers. 
(30-33 inclusive,) that the punishment 
of the wicked is after deafli, is confirmed 
by the most ancient memorials, as well 
as by divine revelation, to be a truth be- 
yond dispute. 

Strophe b — The doom of the wicked is 
sure, notwithstanding that in his life he 
was above accountability to man, and in 
his death honoured with a grand funereal 
cortege, and with undying fame among 
men, 31-34. 

31. His way to his face — No one 
dares to declare to the face of the 
powerful wicked the way (of destruc- 
tion, TX) they pursue. Nor does any 

one dare confront them with their evil 
deeds. Yet though above all responsi- 
bility to man, they are not above re- 
sponsibility to God. 

32. The grave — Like "dwelling- 
places " in verse 28, u the graves" here 
is an amplificative plural. (Delitzsch.) 
Brought — The idea of pomp, or cere- 
mony, is involved in the word youbal. 
The magnificence displayed by the 



of the valley shall be sweet unto him, 
and v every man shall draw after him, 
as there are innumerable before him. 
34 How then comfort ye me in vain, 
seeing in your answers there remaineth 
14 falsehood ? 

13 Hebrew, watch in the heap. v Hebrews 

9. 27. 14 Hebrew, transgression ? 

ancient Egyptians in the burial of their 
dead surpasses description. (See Ca- 
rey's Job, p. 458.) Shall remain in 
the tomb — Shall ivatch over the tomb. 
Mercerus remarks: "The dead is said 
to watch in the sepulchre ; since there 
he is assiduous ; there assiduously re- 
mains ! — never thence departs." Renan 
surmises that there may be an allusion 
to the threatening inscriptions against 
those who profane the abodes of the 
dead, (see note xviii, 16,) which will 
remind of Shakspeare's curse against 
him who should disturb his bones. A 
better view is, that the wicked, instead 
of perishing from remembrance, as Bil- 
dad had said, (xviii, 17,) lives on either 
in the affection that cares for his tomb, 
or in the splendid memorial crowning 
the sepulchral height. There may be 
an allusion, says Hengstenberg, to the 
Egyptian custom of placing in the tomb 
an image of the dead, either as a statue 
or a painting on the wall. 

33. The valley — With the ancients, 
vallies (for instance that of Jehoshaphat) 
were favourite buryingplaces for the 
dead. It was a common wish among 
friends that the earth might be light 
upon their graves. Thus, Terra sit 
super ossa levis. (Catullus.) His grave 
shall be one of perennial freshness, and 
his godless life a magnetic power to 
draw multitudes into the way of evil. 
Every man shall draw after him — 
He has a great following, either in the 
common fate of mortality or in his 
funereal procession ; or, as others say, 
and more properly, in his wickedness 
of life. 

34. Falsehood — Malice or treachery. 
Having subjected their consolatory 
speeches to the test of reason, and 
having eliminated that which seemed 
to be truth, Job declares the residuum 
to be solely the perfidious or malicious 
disposition by which they have been 
actuated. Comp. verse 27. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



151 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THEN Eliphaz the Temanite answer- 
ed and said, 
2 * Can a man be profitable unto God, 
x as he that is wise may be profitable 
unto himself? 3 Is it any pleasure to 



Chapter 35. 7 ; Psalm 16. 2 ; 
Luke 17. 10. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
The third stage of the controversy. 

Chaps, xxii-xxvi. 

Third Address of Eliphaz. 
1. Then Eliphaz. . .answered — 
God is all-sufficient, and if he punish it 
is not for his own profit, much less for 
the sake of human piety, but on ac- 
count of the sins of men. It is there- 
fore plain that an infinite sufferer must 
have been an infinite sinner, (2-5.) 
Job's exaggerated description of the 
prosperity of the wicked seems to Eli- 
phaz a denial of Divine Providence. He 
now proceeds to refute Job by indi- 
rectly arguing the doctrine of such 
Providence, and carries the war into 
Africa by an assault upon Job him- 
self. He charges upon him the guilt 
of oppression and cruelty to the weak 
and defenceless. Under his emirship 
might and violence prospered. More- 
over, he was a sceptic, well skilled to 
make "the worse appear the better 
reason," (12-15.) That Job should 
suffer was due to sins such as these, 
and demonstrated that the wicked are 
punished in this life. The antediluvi- 
ans lived just such lives as those of 
the happy wicked, and their foundation 
of bliss and security was poured forth 
like a stream. The triumphant song 
of the survivors furnishes a text from 
which Eliphaz confidently urges Job to 
return to God, with the assurance of 
returning prosperity, which will mani- 
fest itself not so much in worldly good 
as in joy in God, the consciousness of 
spiritual uprightness, and the bliss of 
doing good to others. 

Hitzig divides the chapter into three 
double strophes. 

First double strophe — The Bill of 
Accusations, 2-11. 

a. A syllogistic 'proof that JoVs suffer- 
ings are the merited punishment of his 
sens, 2- . 



the Almighty, that thou art righteous? 
or is it gain to him, that thou makest 
thy ways perfect? 4 Will he reprove 
thee for fear of thee ? will he enter with 
thee into judgment ? 5 Is not thy wick- 
edness great? and thine iniquities in- 



1 Or, */ he may be vrojitable, doth his good 
success depend thereon t 



2. As — 13, but, or nay but. Zockler 

finds in this series of questions a per- 
fect syllogism, of which verses 2 and 3 
form the major premiss; verse 4 the 
minor premiss ; verse 5 the conclusion, 
to wit, that Job must be a great sin- 
ner. The fallacy lies in the minor prem- 
iss. All trust in works of merit is 
rooted in the idea that man can prof- 
it God. Wise . . . profitable unto 
himself — The second clause implies a 
negative answer to the question of 
profitableness, and should be rendered, 
the wise man profiteth himself. He is 
the gainer, not God. Scott cites a like 
sentiment from Sophocles : " What 
good man is not a friend to himself." 
See sermon, in foe, by Dr. South, on 
" The Impossibility of Man's Meriting 
of God." 

3. Pleasure to the Almighty — 
^Sil, same word as in xxi, 21, which 

see. It is the necessity of every moral 
being to delight in those moral quali- 
ties that are like its own. A righteous 
God must take pleasure in that which 
is righteous. Perhaps there is no ob- 
ject so pleasing to the divine mind as 
holiness, matured through suffering and 
trial. 

4. For fear of thee — For (the sake 
of) thy fear, (iv, 6; xv, 4.) "A genu- 
ine Eliphazian word," not artificially 
" assigned him by the poet," as Ewald 
holds. Will he reprove thee, {punish 
thee, Ewald,) that he may get gain by 
thy worship and piety ? What advan- 
tage would it be to him to answer thy 
summons to trial ? A judicial phrase. 
Chap, ix, 32 ; xiii, 3, 22. No, if he re- 
prove it must be on account of sin. 
which thought paves the way to the 
conclusion. 

5. Iniquities infinite — Literally, 
and no end of thy iniquities f As God 
has no motive of self-interest for chas- 
tising, the cause must be in Job him- 



152 



JOB. 



finite ? 6 For thou hast b taken a pledge 
from thy brother for nought, and 2 strip- 

Eed the naked of their clothing. 7 Thou 
ast not given water to the weary to 
drink, and thou c hast withholden bread 
from the hungry. 8 But as for 3 the 



&Exod. 22. .26, 27; Deut. 24. 10, etc.; chap. 

24. 3, 9; Ezek. 18. 12. 2 Hebrew, stripped the 

clothes of the naked. cSee chap. 31. 17; 

Deut. 15. 7, etc.; Isa. 53. 7; Ezek. 18. 7, 16; 



self. Eliphaz reasons from the sever- 
ity of Job's punishment that his sins 
must have been infinite in number. 

b. Since it must be that Job has com- 
mitted sin, it naturally occurs to Eliphaz 
to charge upon him those sins which the 
best of the rich men of his day were guilty 
of committing. His own logical con- 
clusions he coins into proofs positive of 
Job's guilt, 6-11. 

6. In his portraiture of the wicked 
Zophar had insinuated (xx, 19) what 
Eliphaz, to our surprise, now boldly 
charges against Job. The sins he at- 
tributes to Job are those generally as- 
cribed to wicked men of wealth — hard- 
heartedness, covetousness, and extor- 
tion. Eliphaz infers from the punish- 
ment the character of crimes Job must 
have committed. Personal abuse, the 
last resort of a failing cause, is the first 
public sign the friends display of their 
approaching discomfiture. (See Job's 
noble reply, xxix, 11-16.) The mantle 
of charity that we may throw over 
Eliphaz is, that he had long brooded 
over his suspicions until they assumed 
shape and at last substance. Pledge 
. . . naught — There was a twofold ag- 
gravation of his guilt; that he should 
require a pledge from a brother, and 
that without cause. Job "is represent- 
ed as extorting pledges without hav- 
ing lent." — Michaelis. The naked of 
their clothing — Literally, And strip- 
pedst off the clothes of the naked. Sen- 
eca tells us that one poorly clad and 
in rags was said to be naked. (Jas. ii, 
15.) Michaelis says, (''Laws of Moses," 
ii, 303,) " From the analogy of his 
(Moses's) law of pledge, it is probable 
that the necessary pieces o'" clothing 
were not permitted to be seized and 
stripped from off the person of the 
debtor, as might be done by merciless 
creditors among the neighbouring na- 



mighty man, he had the earth; and the 
4 honourable man dwelt in it. 9 Thou 
hast sent widows away empty, and the 
arms of d the fatherless have been broken. 
10 Therefore c snares are round about 
thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee : 

Matt. 25. 42. 3 Hebrew, the man of arm. 

4 Hebrew, eminent, or, accepted for counte- 
nance, tf Chap. 31.21; Isa. 10. 2; Ezek. 22.7. 

e Chap. 18. 8-10 ; 19. 6. 



tions, for he even commands the credi- 
tor (Exod. xxii, 26, 27) who had taken 
in pledge his poor neighbour's npper 
garment (which was a large square 
piece of cloth that was wrapped about 
the body by day, and served as a cov- 
erlet by night) to restore it again be- 
fore sunset." Origen remarks that he is 
a robber who does not clothe the naked. 
See Freeman's "Hand-Book," 261. 

7. Not given water — That which 
we do not do is made at the last day 
quite as much a test of character as 
what we do. Matt, xxv, 42, 43. The 
Egyptian Book of the Dead represents 
a soul before Osiris as saying. "I have 
given food to the hungry, drink to the 
thirsty, and clothes to the naked," (eh. 
cxxv.) The same sentiment appears 
so frequently on stelae and tombs, that 
Mariette thinks that it must have been 
a part of a daily prayer among the an- 
cient Egyptians. 

8. The mighty man — Literally, 
the man of arm. An idiom common to 
almost all Asia, even in the present 
day. (Good.) The arm was the symbol 
of strength ; length of arm expressed 
power; shortness of arm, impotency. 
" The Lord's hand is not shortened, that 
it cannot save." (Isa. lix, 1.) The hon- 
ourable man — Qijgj tfsifco : that is, 

men accepted for favour, — favoured on 
account of wealth and power. Ke- 
nan renders it, The formidable man; 
and says, " These misfortunes, in the 
thought of Eliphaz, took place through 
the fault of Job. It was the duty of 
Job, in fact, being judge, to prevent 
them." Or it may mean the mighty 
and the honourable (ironical) prosper, 
under the emirship of Job, while wid- 
ows and the fatherless are trampled 
into the dust; the arm < f might excels, 
and the arm of the orphan is broken. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



153 



1 1 Or darkness, that thou canst not see ; 
and abundance of f waters cover thee. 

12 Is not God in the height of heaven? 
and behold 5 the height oAhe stars, how 
high they are! 13 And thou say est, 
6g How doth God know? can he judge 
through the dark cloud? 14 h Thick 
ciouds are a covering to him, that he 

/Psalm 69. 1, 2; 124. 4; Lam. 3. 54. 5 He- 
brew, the head of the stars. 6 Or, What. 

a Psalm 10. 11; 59. 7; 73. 11; 94. 7. h Psalm 

139. 11, 12 : i Chap. 15. 32; Psalm 55. 23; 102.24; 



11. Darkness, etc. — Dillmann and 
Schlottmann make this a question, but 
the text is better — (thus Hitzig.) The 
darkness is moral, blurring the vision. 
Eliphaz represents Job's sins as en- 
compassing him like thick, dark clouds, 
and overwhelming him as a flood. 

Second double strophe — The fate 
of the antediluvians a warning to 
Job, 12-20. 

a. Tiie sceptical vieivs of Job, which 
exalted God above all concern for and 
knowledge of the universe, have led Job 
into the commission of the sins alleged, 
and aggravated the punishment they called 
forth, 12-15. 

12. In the height of heaven — The 
abrupt original appears by omitting in. 
Is not God high as the heavens'? (xi, 8,) 
— exalted so high that he cannot see. 
The language that Milton attributes to 
Eve after her terrible sin breathes the 
same godless spirit. 

And 1 perhaps am secret: heaven is high ; 
High, and remote to see from thence distinct 
Each thing on earth. 

—Paradine Lost, book ix. 

It belongs to sinful nature to solace it- 
self with the treacherous sense of se- 
crecy. ' ' They will gladly allow God 
his heavens, if he will only allow them 
their earthly life of pleasure." — Starke. 
Height of the stars — The highest 
stars. 

13. How — What doth God know? 
The sentiment ascribed to Job was 
subsequently that of Epicurus and the 
English Deists. •' Eliphaz here attrib- 
utes to Job (who in xxi, 22 had ap- 
pealed to the exaltation of God in op- 
position to the friends) a complete mis- 
conception of the truth, and thus skil- 
fully turns against Job himself the 
weapon which the latter had sought to 
wrest from him." — Schlottmann. 



seeth not ; and he walketh in the circuit 
of heaven. 15 Hast thou marked the old 
way which wicked men have trodden ? 
16 "Which ' were cut down out of time, 
7 whose foundation was overflown with 
a flood: 17 k Which said unto God, 
Depart from us : and ' what can the Al- 
mighty do s for them ? 18 Yet he rilled 



Eccles. 7. 17. 7 Hebrew, a flood was poured 

upon their foundation, Gen. 7. 11 ; 2 Pet. 2. 5. 

k Chap. 21. 14. 1 Psalm 4. tj. 8 Or, to 

them ? 

1 4. In the circuit of — On the vault 
of. He moves in an orbit so high that 
he does not care for what takes place on 
the earth. The sophistry of Eliphaz is 
plain. Job denies the just distribution 
of evil and good, (xxi,) therefore he re- 
jects the doctrine of a Divine Provi- 
dence. The reason for this must be 
either that God cannot know, or that 
he is too deeply engrossed in the higher 
departments of his universe to attend 
to the affairs of this world. 

15. Hast thou marked — Wilt thou 
keep. The old way— Hebrew, D?ty. 
He probably means the way of the an- 
tediluvians. A man's faith, or voidness 
of faith, is a finger-pointer to the life 
he leads. The tenor of the argument 
is, that those who hold godless opinions 
must lead godless lives. 

Note.— The asterisk in the Hebrew Bible 
indicates that the middle of the book is now 
reached, the book consisting of 1,070 verses. 

b. The wrath of God, intensified by 
such scepticism, visits the world, over- 
throwing the boastful wicked, and calling 
forth the triumphal songs of the right- 
eous, 16-20. 

16. Out down out of time, etc. — 
Literally, who were snatched away before 
the time — prematurely. Their founda- 
tion was poured away as a stream. 
Snatched away — Kamat is used only 
here and xvi, 8. See note. With a 
flood — As a stream. Their foundation 
became fluid, an undoubted reference 
to the deluge. Compare Matt, vii, 27. 

17. Depart from us — Note, xxi, 14. 
Do for them — Do to them, as in the mar- 
gn. To them, that is, to us; a poetical 
change of person. Job had spoken in 
these very terms of the defiant prosper- 
ity of the wicked. Eliphaz sarcastical- 
ly ascribes the same language to the 



154 



JOB. 



their houses with good things: but m the 
counsel of the wicked is far from me, 
19" The righteous see it, and are glad : 
and the innocent laugh them to scorn. 
20 Whereas our 9 substance is not cut 
down, but 10 the remnant of them the 
fire consumeth. 

21 Acquaint now thyself " with him, 



m Chap. 21. 16. n Psalm 58. 10 ; 107. 42. 

9 Or, estate. 10 Or, their excellency. 

11 That is, with God. 



ungodly who lived at the time of the 
deluge. They reveled in luxury, as Job 
in general terms said the wicked do, and 
yet they were overwhelmed by the 
flood. The retort is both striking and 
logically complete. 

18. Good things — Job had said 
their good is not in their hand, xxi, 16. 
Eliphaz goes further, and admits that 
God "filled the houses" of the antedi- 
luvians with like "good," but only that 
their destruction might be the more 
complete. In irony he retorts upon 
Job still further his own words, But 
far from me be the counsel of the wicked. 

19. Are glad — They rejoice, not in 
the sufferings of the wicked, but in the 
triumph of justice. Aristotle observes 
that " no good man is troubled when 
parricides, for instance, meet with their 
deserved punishment ; for it is our duty 
to rejoice on such occasions." 

20. Contains the triumphant song 
of the righteous : — 

Truly our adversary is cut off, 
And their residue fire consumeth. 

Whereas — N?"DX, truly, the strongest 
form of affirmation : same as in i, 1 1 ; 
xvii, 2. Substance, etc. — D^p, He who 
is set up, adversary, a singular form 
used collectively. Our translators fol- 
lowed the Septuagint. Our adversary, 
not in a personal but in a moral sense, 
for the wicked are the natural enemies 
of the good. The remnant of them — 
That which remains to them, or of 
them. The destruction is radical and 
complete, a fact symbolized by the fire. 
Third double strophe — A final ad- 
monition to repentance— repentance 
insures restoration of the divine 

FAVOUR, 21-30. 

a. He who lives for God, and sacrifices 
his all, shall find in God abiding treasures 
and an inexhaustible mine of bliss, 21-25. 



and ° be at peace : thereby good shall 
come unto thee. 22 Receive, T pray 
thee, the law from his mouth, and p lay 
up his words in thine heart. 23 q If 
thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt 
be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity 
far from thy tabernacles. 24 Then shalt 
thou r lay up gold 12 as dust, and the 



o Isaiah 27. o. p Psalm 119. 11. q Chap. 

8. 5, 6 ; 11. 13, 14. r 2 Chron. 1, 15. 12 Or, on 

the dust. 



21. Acquaint now thyself — |3pn. 

The idea that lies at the root of this 
verb is, of associating or dwelling to- 
gether, (G-esenius. Thes., 953;) thence 
of friendship, which leads the Germans 
to render, make friends with God. Our 
translators have happily rendered it. 
acquaint thyself; now, in the sense of 
entreaty. And be at peace — With 
God and with thyself; for the one im- 
plies the other. The former verb ex- 
presses the making, the latter, the pres- 
ervation, of peace. Good — A word 
bandied in the debate. See note xx. 21. 
Also sermons in loc. by Archbishops 
Atterbury and Sumner. 

22. The law— Thorah, the law, 
written or unwritten. There is no evi- 
dence that this refers to the Mosaic law. 
The word ihorah, so common in the Old 
Testament, appears only this once in 
Job. 

23. To the Almighty— Hy ; even to 

— close. up to. " Job need not despair 
of coming, through penitence, again 
close up to his offended Creator." — 
Bernard. 

24. Lay up gold as dust, etc. — 
Literally, And cast to the dust the pre- 
cious ore; even gold of Ophir to- the 
stones of the brooks. Then the Almighty 
shall be thy precious ores, and plenty of 
silver to thee. " To lay shining metal on 
the dust, is a way of speaking to regard 
them equally little," (TJmbreit.) Augus- 
tine's thought, that "the Christian 
counts gold as dust," well conveys that 
of Eliphaz. For a similar use of JT£J, 

see chap, xxx, 1, to " set with," put on 
a level with, "the dogs of my flock." 
In the original there is a play of words 
between betser, precious ore, and be- 
tsowr, to the stone. Canon Cook (Speak- 
er's Com.) sees in the promises of gold in 



CHAPTER XXIL 



155 



gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. 
25 Yea, the Almighty shall he thy de- 
fence, 13 and thou shalt have w plenty 
of silver. 26 For then shalt thou have 
thy s delight in the Almighty, and ' shalt 
lift up thy face unto God.' 27 u Thou 
shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he 
shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy 
vows. 28 Thou shalt also decree a 



13 Or, gold. 14 Hebrew, silver of strength. 

— sChap. 27. in; Isa. 58. 14. ^Chap. 11. 15. 

— u Psa. 50. 14, 15 ; Isa. 58. 9. v Prov. 29. 23 ; 



the text, the reflection of a " selfish and 
sordid" nature, on the supposition that 
his name, Eliphaz — "gold is my god " — 
indicated his true character. (See note, 
chapter ii, 1 1.) This leads Eliphaz. he 
thinks, to " exhort Job to a speedy re- 
pentance, which he assures him will be 
immediately rewarded by abundance of 
wealth." But the rendering as above, 
which is hinted at In the margin, and 
substantially accepted by most of the re- 
cent scholars, redeems this beautiful 
exhortation from so mercenary a blur, 
and makes it one of the most precious 
promises of the word of God. Ophir — 
Used for gold of Ophir, as Amos (like 
ourselves) calls the cloth of Damascus 
"damask" — "in Damascus in a couch; " 
literally, damask of the bed. Amos hi, 12. 
The natives of Malacca at the present 
day call their gold mines Ophirs. The 
site of these famous mines of antiquity is 
still as much as ever in dispute. Heeren 
thinks that, like Thule, the name denotes 
no particular spot, but only a certain 
region or part of the world, such as 
the East or "VTest Indies in modern 
geography. Hence Ophir was the 
general name for the rich countries of 
the south, lying on the African, Ara- 
bian, or Indian coasts, as far as at that 
time known. — Hist. Res., i, 335. Ac- 
cording to Bitter, Ewald, and Lassen, 
Ophir lay in India ; while Xiebuhr, 
Winer, and Kalisch place it in Arabia ; 
Bawlinson, in Ceylon. 

25. Plenty of silver — Literally, 
bars of silver, (Hitzig:) silver of excellen- 
cies or splendours. (Ewald;) and heaps 
of silver, (Dillmaun;) or better, silver of 
labours, (Gesenius.) that is, obtained by 
great labour. The word appears in 
Psalm xcv, 4, "the strength [labours] 
of the hills;" one of the prime mean- 



thing, and it shall be established unto 
thee : and the liirht shall shine upon 
thy ways. 29 "When men are cast 
down, then thou shalt say, There is 
lifting up; and v he shall save 15 the 
humble person. 30 19 He shall deliver 
the island of the innocent : and it is 
delivered by the pureness of thine 
hands. 



James 4. 6 ; 1 Peter 5. 5. 15 Hebrew, him that 

hath low eyes. 16 Or, The innocent shall 

deliver the island. Gen. 18. 2'j, etc. 



ings of the verbal root being "to be- 
come weary." Gold and silver have 
ever been the bright and alluring sym- 
bols of worldly good. God thus early 
uses them in figure to set forth the 
desirableness of himself and his glory. 
He who, like the Levite, gives up all 
for God, finds his treasure in God. God 
becomes his Ophir, the Almighty his 
precious ores. A just estimate of this 
world's treasures becomes a golden 
round in the heavenly ladder. 

b. His prayers shall prevail with 
God, not only on his own behalf baton the 
behalf of others ; an unconscious predic- 
tion of the final offices Job was called to 
fulfil, 26-30. 

28. Decree a thing — In a certain 
sense, under the econonw of grace, 
man's decrees become God's decrees. 
The purposes of faith God is pleased to 
accept, and thus they become His pur- 
pose. The fiat of man in itself may be 
but a tinkling cymbal — in the scheme 
of grace it may become the power of God. 

29. Lifting up — Words of cheer ; 
" upwards," " forwards," or, as Gese- 
nius has it: " Thou commandest lifting 
up." Omit there is. The words of 
the man of God are words of consola- 
tion and of power. The sorrowful are 
lifted up, and God saves " the humble 
person" — literally, the meek of eye. 

30. The island of— 'j?T*Ki not guilt- 
less. This Hebrew word i {not) our 
translators altogether mistook. Here 
it has a negative sense, as in I-chabod, 
no-glory. The verse should read — 

He shall deliver him that is not guiltless, 
And he shall be saved by the pureness of thy 
hands. 

Our own purity of life under God be- 
comes a powerful agency for the con- 



156 



JOB. 



i CHAPTER XXIII. 

HEN Job answered and said, 2 Even 



1 Hebrew, 



version of others. (Psa. li, 13.) So lit- 
tle do we know of onr spiritual needs, 
that we are quite as ready to exhort 
others as to care for ourselves. At 
the very moment that these words of 
noble counsel fell from his lips, Eli- 
phaz needed the prayers of some up- 
right man, which Job himself (xlii 8) 
finally offered. The reader cannot but 
be touched with a feeling of regret as 
this high-minded son of Teman passes 
from the scene, commissioned as he 
was from God to deliver an exhorta- 
tion that for beauty of sentiment, pu- 
rity of thought, and depth of spiritual 
knowledge, is without compare in the 
Old Testament Scriptures. He stands 
forth the lofty peer of Balaam, free 
(the reader may trust) from his failing ; 
— the only one of "The Three," at all 
worthy to grapple with Job in the solu- 
tion of the dark problem of evil. In 
argument, however, he lacked self-con- 
trol, and allowed himself to follow his 
friends in vituperation and to surpass 
them in calumny. Eliphaz spoke of 
God "the thing that was not right," 
by perverting the facts of human life, 
and by setting forth an imperfect ret- 
ribution, as worthy of the righteous- 
ness of God. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Job's Seventh Reply, xxiii, xxiv. 

]. Then Job answered — In re- 
sponse to the touching exhortation of 
Eliphaz, calling him to prayer and holy 
living, Job pleads that his great mis- 
ery is that he cannot find God. East, 
west, north, and south Job had ear- 
nestly sought God, but he seemed to 
hide Himself, lest, hearing his cause, 
love of righteousness should compel 
him to absolve his servant. Job's con- 
sciousness of integrity — the thought 
that if tried he should come forth like 
gold from the furnace — buoys him up as 
he contemplates the absolute and un- 
changeable Arbiter of his fate. Chap, 
xxiv. He abruptly takes up again the 
line of thought pursued in the twenty- 



to day is my complaint bitter : *my 
stroke is heavier than my groaning. 



my hand. 



first chapter, with the question why it 
is, if God appoints days of judgment 
for the wicked, that his servants do 
not see them. On the contrary, God's 
eye constantly rests on oppressors of 
every hue, who every-where trample 
upon the defenceless poor, the groans 
and cries of whom cease not day nor 
night. Beneath the same Eye mur- 
derers and adulterers riot in the un- 
holiest works of darkness. Instead of 
manifesting himself for the deliverance 
of the innocent and the punishment of 
the guilty, he grants these malefactors 
either an euthanasia, a quick and easy 
death, or else he lengthens out their life 
till at last, like ripened grain, they drop 
into the grave. Nowhere else are the 
perplexities of the divine government 
exhibited in so vivid colours ; perplexi- 
ties that now, as then, defy all human 
solution. 

Eirst division — The obverse and 
personal side of the mystery of evil 
— God contemns innocent sufferers. 
The resource for calumniated Job 
loould again be to refer the mystery of his 
lot to God for solution ; but He of set pur- 
pose hides himself behind the veil of arbi- 
trary vnll, lest he should be constrained to 
deal justly with his suffering servant, 
chap, xxiii. 

First strophe — Gould Job have access 
to God, he would elaborately prepare, 
and earnestly present, his case, 2-5. 

2. To-day — Ewald thinks that the 
controversy was continued for several 
days. The sublime allusion to the 
stars, in the address of Eliphaz, points 
to the night as the time of its delivery. 
There may have been a considerable 
interval between the discourse of El- 
iphaz and the reply of Job. Hence 
the emphatic D3, " also, or again to-day." 
Bitter — Or. rebellion, for such his friends 
accounted his complaint. His com- 
plaint, he admits, is still rebellious. 
My stroke — Literally, my hand, that 
is, God's hand. Job (xi'x, 21) had spoken 
before of the hand of God as the source 
of his affliction. Happy he who can 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



157 



3 a Oh that I knew where I might find 
him ! that I might come even to his 
seat ! 4 I would b order my cause before 
him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 
5 I would know the words which, he 
would answer me, and understand what 
he would say unto me. 6 c Will he 
plead against me with his great power ? 



a Chap. 13. 3 ; 16. 21. b Chap. 13. 18 ; 37. 19 ; 

Psa. 43. 1 ; Isa. 43. 26. 



call God's chastening hand "my hand." 
Hitzig and Delitzsch read, My hand 
Utth heavy upon my groaning, thus ren- 
dering py, upon, rather than with the 
sense of a comparative. Job's groan- 
ing is due to the heavy hand of God. 
" The hand upon me presseth forth my 
sighs."— StickeL 

3. Seat — Ttkounah. Its root signi- 
fies to prepare. The Scriptures repre- 
sent God as seated when administering 
judgment. The seat or throne where 
God hearkens to man is one specially 
prepared, and is, therefore, a throne of 
grace. From the false verdict of his 
friends Job again makes his appeal to 
God. The Divine Being, who might 
easily hear his plea and adjudicate his 
cause, withdraws himself. For reasons 
known only to God, Job. like his Sa- 
viour, is left to drink the cup alone. 

4. Order — Set in order. Chap, xiii, 
18. Used also of the drawing up of an 
army. Judges xx, 22. 

Second strophe — Rrgerminant faith 
leads Job to trust that God yet would Look 
propitiously upon him, but the hope is 
dispelled by the counter thought that God 
hides himself from all human search. 
Verses 6-9. 

6. Will he plead against me — 
Rather, Would He in great power contend 
v:ith met Xo! surely He would have 
regard to me. Would put — p^, plo,ce, 
fix. is elsewhere, as here, used without 
leb {heart or mind) when plainly re- 
quired by the context. Chap, xxiv, 12 ; 
xxxiv. 23 : Isaiah xli, 20. Could he 
but find God, Joh is confident that He 
would not overwhelm him with His 
awe; on the contrary. He would give 
heed to him — " fix his mind upon him.*' 

7. Might dispute — rDIJ, pleads, the 
Niphal form of the verb. With the 
same preposition, py, the J-Iiphil form 



No ; but he would put strength in me. 
7 There the righteous might dispute 
with him ; d so should I be delivered for 
ever from my judge. 8 e Behold, I go 
forward, but* he is not there ; and back- 
ward, but I cannot perceive him : 9 On 
the left hand, where he doth work, but 
I cannot behold him : he hideth himself 



c Isaiah 27. 4, 
3. 19, : 



-tfChap. 9. 15; Rom. 
>, Chap. 9. 11. 



is also rendered plead in chap. xvi. 21, 
which see. The passage before us reads, 
literally, A righteous one there pleads with 
Him, which, to say the least, " suggests 
the thought of the Great Intercessor. 
It is, too, not altogether foreign to the 
book." — T. Levris. See Excursus iv. 
Delivered. . .from — So should I be for- 
ever acquitted by my judge. God's judg- 
ment would prove final ; his words of 
absolution would be without repeal. 
When God did appear, his self-confi- 
dence, now so conspicuous, merged it- 
self in the profoundest self-abasement. 
Chap, xl, 4. 

8. Forward — Or, eastward. The 
Orientals determined the cardinal points 
by facing the east ; unlike ourselves, 
who, for reasons not so natural, con- 
front the north, making this the start- 
ing point. Rawlinson traces the words 
Asia and Europe to Hebrew sources, 
the former having originally signified 
"the East," the latter "the West." 
(Herodotus iii, 33.) The Jews have a 
tradition that Adam was created with 
his face toward the east, that he might 
first see the rising sun. Wordsw r orth 
happily reminds the Christian that in 
all his thoughts, words, and works, 
with regard to the points of his spiritual 
compass he should have the eye of his 
heart turned toward Christ, "the Sun 
of Righteousness." and should regulate 
the whole course of his life accord- 
ingly. Backward— To the west. 

9." On the left hand— To the north. 
Where he doth work — Where more 
strikingly the phenomena of nature 
declare divine agency. He may have 
had in mind the w r eird "auroral light " 
which an unseen power calls into being 
and suspends upon the brow of night 
without the agency of sun, moon, or 
stars. He hideth himself — If in the 
north Job find not God, it were vain 



158 



JOB. 



on the right hand, that 1 cannot see him: 
10 But he f knoweth, 2 the way that I 
take: when g he hath tried me, I shall 
come iorth as gold. 1 1 h My foot hath 
held his steps, his way have I kept, and 
not declined. 12 Neither have 1 gone 
back from the commandment of his lips ; 



/Psa. 139. 1-3. 2Heb. the way that is with 

me. g Psa. 17. 3; 66. 10; James 1. 12. 

APsa. 44. 18. 3Heb. I have hid, or laid up. 



to turn to the south, (" the right hand,") 
where barren wastes of sand stretched 
interminably away. Amid such deso- 
lation the imagination might well con- 
ceive that God had hidden himself, 
ch. ix, 11. The deep impression the in- 
visibility of God made upon the ancient 
mind is reflected in the inscription made 
upon the base of the statue of the god- 
dess of wisdom, Neith, (Minerva,) at 
Sais, Egypt — " I am all which hath 
been, which is, and which will be, and 
no mortal has yet lifted my veil." — ' 
Plutarch, Be Iside, etc., sec. ix. 

Third strophe — Job is no less assured 
of the integrity of his life than of the ab- 
solute certainty that God will not turn 
aside from his purpose when once it is 
formed, 10-13. 

10. The way that I take— The 
margin is more exact., the way that is 
with me ; that is, that has become 
habitual to me. (Dillmann.) Laws of 
habit soon make the way of righteous- 
ness, no less than the path of iniquity, 
easy to our feet and one with our 
nature. 

11. Held his steps — The primary 
meaning of the word TI1K, rendered 
held, is to seize, to lay fast hold of; upon 
which Kitto {Pic. Bib.) observes that 
" an unshod Oriental, particularly an 
Arab, in treading firmly or in taking a 
determined stand, does actually seem 
to lay hold of, seize or grasp, the 
ground with his toes, giving a sort of 
fixedness in his position inconceivable 
to those the power of whose feet is 
cramped by the habitual use of shoes." 
Roberts, in his " Oriental Illustrations," 
says of a Kandian chief who was to be 
beheaded, that when he arrived at the 
place where he was to be executed he 
looked around for some time for a small 
shrub, and on seeing one he seized it 
with his loes in order to be firm while 



3i I have esteemed the words of his 
mouth more than 4 my necessary food. 
1 3 But he is in one mind, and k who 
can turn him? and what Uiis soul de- 
sireth, even that he doeth. 14 For he 
performeth the thing that is m appointed 
for me : and many such things are with 



■iJohn 4. 32, 34. 4 Or, my appointed por- 
tion. k Chap. 9. 12, 13; 12. 14; Rom. 9. 19. 

JPsa. 115. 3. ml Thess. 3. 3. 



the executioner did his office. His 
steps — The steps are divine. Our 
entire pathway has been marked by 
such. Thus holy life is made the more 
easy, for we have but to "rivet" (Good) 
our steps in these, and nothing can 
move us. Life thus becomes the king's 
highway, with its "example," pattern, 
vTvoypafjifibc, literally, writing copy, which 
Christ hath left that we should follow 
his steps. 1 Pet. ii, 21. His way — The 
law was regarded by the Hebrew as a 
way wherein man should walk, under 
the leadership of God. 

12. My necessary (food) ^n — 

Gen. xlvii, 22 ; Prov. xxx, 8. Recent 
interpreters mostly render it my law, 
meaning his own natural desires con- 
trasted with God's law. This law of 
his sinful nature answers to what the 
apostle designates as the law in his 
members warring against the law. of 
his mind. Rom. vii, 23. Job has sub- 
ordinated his own to the divine will. 

13. He is in one — The 3 (in) is beth. 
essential — God is one and the same, un- 
changeable. His determinations he 
carries into execution. 

Fourth strophe — The thought that he 
should be the helpless victim of the im- 
penetrable purposes of an unchangeable 
God fills Job with unspeakable terror, 
14-17. 

14. The thing that is appointed 
for me — , i?n. Same word as in verse 



12; here meaning lot or destiny. Yes, 
He will accomplish my destiny. (Dill- 
mann, Zockler.) And many such 
(lots) are with him — The lot of all 
human lives is planned by God. He 
determines after what pattern they shall 
be moulded, what afflictions shall be- 
fall, how oft the gold shall be subjected 
to the alembic of sorrow, and in what 
new combinations of beauty the graces 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



159 



him. 15 Therefore am I troubled at 
his presence : when I consider, I am 
afraid of him. 16 For God "maketh 
my heart soft, and the Almighty troub- 
leth me : 17 Because I was not cut off 
before the darkness, neither hath he 
covered the darkness from my face. 



n Psa. 22. 14.— a Acts 1. 7. — b Deut. 19. 14; 27. 17; 



shall expand in flower and ripen in fruit. 
The many millions of beings pliant be- 
neath the hand and heart of the divine 
Moulder, in varied character and ex- 
perience may vie with the starry heav- 
ens in showing forth the glory of God. 

15. Therefore — Because of this dark 
and absolute relationship to my fate. 
Afraid of him— Eliphaz had reproached 
Job with his fear, chap, xxii, 10. The 
thought of One, and he an unseen God, 
standing behind this troublous life with 
purposes incomprehensible, and the 
more perplexing because they affect 
ourselves, is in itself enough to " make 
soil the heart," and "trouble," that is, 
confuse, the mind. In His hand the 
individual lies helpless and alone ; yet 
not without filial trust imparted by God 
himself. 

16. For— Better, And. Soft— Faint. 

17. Cut off — The key to this much- 
vexed passage lies in nitsmath, " cut 
off," which should bear its Arabic 
meaning of brought to silence. Eliphaz 
(chapter xxii, 11) had taunted Job not 
only with his fear, but with the dark- 
ness and deluge that covered him. He 
replies, For I grow not dumb because of 
(or before) the darkness, nor because of 
(or before) myself, whom thick darkness 
hath covered. Thus most moderns. 
Job is still ready to maintain what he 
believes to be the right ; he will " not be 
reduced to silence, " notwithstandingthe 

black miduight darkness (7SK) which 

had overwhelmed him. This bold and 
defiant declaration is transitional to the 
awful arraignment of God's ways in the 
following chapter. " From the incom- 
prehensible punishment which, with- 
out reason, is passing over him, he now 
again comes to speak of the incompre- 
hensible connivance of God, which per- 
mits the godlessness of the world to go 
on unpunished." — Delilzsch. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

WHY, seeing * times are not hidden 
from the Almighty, do they that 
know him not see his days? 2 Some 
remove the b landmarks ; they violently 
take away flocks, and 1 feed thereof. 

Prov. 22. 28 ; 23. 10 ; Hosea5. 10.— lOr, feed them. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Second division — Reverse side of 

THE MYSTERY OF EVIL — GOD WINKS AT, 
AND SEEMINGLY PROSPERS, THE WICKED, 

chap. xxiv. 
First half— An array of facts to 

SHOW THAT THE WORLD IS A SCENE OF 
WRONG IN WHICH THE WICKED OPPRESS, 
TRAMPLE UPON, AND SLAY, THE INNO- 
CENT AND DEFENCELESS, 1-12. 

First strophe — If there be days of 
retribution, how is it that " God's famil- 
iars-' — those who know so. much about 
God — never see his judgments ? 1-4. 

1. Times are not hidden, etc. — 
Rather, Why are times not appointed by 
the Almighty f and (why) do they that 
know him not see his days? Why, if it 
be as you say, that the wicked are 
punished in this world, (chap, xxii, 
19, 20,) is it that the servants of God 
do not see such infliction of justice? 
Hidden — Tsaphan, reserved, appointed. 
God's judgments, like his ways, are 
hidden from sight until he pleases to 
bring them to the light; hence the 
phrase is common to express that 
which is divinely determined. Know 
him — Literally, his knowers. Compare 
Psa. xxxvi, 10. His days — Answers 
to times, which may be regarded as pe- 
riods with specific days. The prophets 
frequently speak of days of judgment, 
but more particularly of a future great 
day of God. Joel i, 15; Isa. ii, 12. Of 
such a day Enoch prophesied, (Jude 
14.) and at no time probably has its 
lurid light died away from the sky. 

2. Some remove the landmarks — 
The violence of Job's emotion is marked 
by his omission of the subject — the wick- 
ed. In times when landmarks were the 
sole evidence of the limits of land, their 
removal was deemed an outrage so gross 
that under Nurna it was punished with 
death. See also Deut. xix, 14; xxvii, 17. 
On a land boundary stone of the time 



160 



JOB. 



3 They drive away the ass of the father- 
less, they c take the widow's ox for a 
pledge. 4 They turn the needy out of 
the way: d the poor of the earth hide 
themselves together. 5 Behold, as wild 
asses in the desert, go they forth to their 
work ; rising betimes for a prey : the 



c Deut. 24. 6, 10, 12, 17 ; chap. 22. 6. d Prov. 

28. 28. — —2 Hebrew, mingled corn, or dredge. 



of Mercdach-Baladan I., about B. C. 
1300, is the following inscription: "If 
a ruler, or eunuch, or a citizen, the 
memorial stone of this ground takes 
and destroys, in a place where it can- 
not be seen to anywhere shall place it 
in, and this stone tablet if a naka, or a 
brother, or a katu, or an evil one, or an 
enemy, or any other person, or the son 
of the owner of this land, shall act 
falsely, and shall destroy it, into the 
■water or into the fire shall throw it, with 
a stpne shall break it, from the hand 
of Maraduk-zakir-izkur, (the grantee,) 
and his seed shall take it away, and 
above or below shall send it; the gods. 
Ann, Bel, and Hea, Ninip and Gula, 
these lords and all the gods on this 
stone tablet whose emblems are seen, 
violently may they destroy his name. 
A curse unmitigated may they curse 
over him. Calamity may they bring 
upon him. May his seed be swept 
away in evil, and not in goodj and in 
the day of departing of life may he ex- 
pire, and Shamas and Merodach tear 
him asunder, and may none mourn for 
him!" — George Smith, Assyrian Dis- 
cov., 236-241. And feed thereof— The 
same strong arm of violence that seized 
upon the flocks of the helpless, shame- 
lessly feeds them in public view. It is 
supposed by some that Job, in this sad 
description of the poor and defenceless, 
(2-8,) had in mind the aboriginal people 
of his native land, the Horites. dwell- 
ers of Mount Seir, who had been dis- 
possessed of their all, reduced to the 
grossest vassalage, and finally extermi- 
nated by the Edomites. Every land has 
had a like history of outrage and wrong. 
4. Out of the way — To which all 
had equal rights. " Perhaps equivalent 
to our phrase, ' kick out of the way.' " 
— Dillmann. The sense is, that the 
poor are forced to betake themselves to 
bypaths that they may escape overt I 



wilderness yieldeth food for them and 
for their children. 6 They reap every 
one his 2 corn in the field: and 8 they 
gather the vintage of the wicked. 7 They 
e cause the naked to lodge without cloth- 
ing, that they have no covering in the 
cold. 8 Thev are wet with the showers 



3 Hebrew, the wicked gather the vintage. 

Exod. 22. 26, 27 ; Deut. 24. 12, 13 ; chap. 22. 6. 



acts of violence. Hide themselves 
— Are made to hide themselves. They 
huddle together in cave or den, like 
wild beasts, from the fury of the storm. 
Second strophe — Dispossessed of their 
homes, the poor are driven forth like wild 
animals into the desert, destitute, 5-8. 

5. Behold. . .wild asses. . .desert 
— Job thus personifies these wretched 
exiles, driven away into the wilderness. 
The wild ass was proverbial for being 
untamable. It lived in great herds 
far from the haunts of men, and was, 
according to Ker Porter, of " prodigious 
swiftness." Seenote, chap, xi, 12. That 
Job cannot, as Canon Cook thinks, 
mean robber hordes, is evident from 
the want of resemblance between them 
and the wild ass, which is not at all a 
beast of prey, but a timorous animal, 
whose only defence is swiftness of foot. 
Their work — That of seeking a preca- 
rious support; a meaning determined 
by the last clause of the verse. For a 
prey — Tareph; meat, food. The same 
word as in Prov. xxxi, 15. The wil- 
derness, etc. — Literally, The desert to 
him is food for the children. The desert 
yields its herbs and roots, the scantiest 
fare, to him the father, who, as provider, 
represents the family. Their children 
— A stroke of tenderness ; for children 
are the first to feel the pangs of hunger. 

6. Corn — Various kinds of grain mix- 
ed together in the sowing, and which 
served as fodder for cattle. Gather — 
They glean the few grapes left in the 
vineyards of the wicked. These are they 
whom hunger drives back into the fields 
of the rich by night; so Merx thinks. 

1. They cause the naked — The 
verb, here, is not causative. Naked, 
they pass the night without clothing. 
Travellers in Arabia Petrea uniformly 
speak of the days as intensely hot and 
the nights as correspondingly cold. 

8. Showers — Better. Storms. Em- 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



161 



of the mountains, and f embrace the rock 
for want of a shelter. 9 They pluck 
the fatherless from the breast, and take 
a pledge of the poor. 10 They, cause 
him to go naked without clothing, and 
they take away the sheaf from the hun 
gry; 11 Which make oil within their 



/Lam. 4. 5. a John 9. 39, 41 ; 



brace the rock — In order to cover at 
least some part of the body. This 
closely agrees with what Niebuhr says 
of the modern wandering Arabs near 
Mount Sinai: "Those who cannot af- 
ford a tent spread out a cloth upon 
four or six stakes; and others spread 
their cloth near a tree, or endeavour 
to shelter themselves from the heat and 
the rain in the cavities of the rocks." 

Third strophe — The wretched poor are 
treated worse than the brute, and in the 
cities even, tlie blood of the innocent cries to 
God in vain, 9-12. 

9. They — The high-handed oppres- 
sors of whom he had spoken in verse 4. 
"Inhuman creditors take the fatherless 
and still tender orphan away from its 
mother, in order to bring it up as a 
slave, and so to obtain payment." — De- 
litzsch. Take a pledge — What the poor 
has on they take as a pledge. — G-esenius. 
Mosaical legislation protected the outer 
garment of the poor, as it served for a 
covering by night. Exod. xxii, 26. 

10. They cause — ^DpH is used, not 

in a causative but frequentative sense. 
(Which) go naked without clothing, and 
hungry they bear the sheaf. God's care 
for oxen forbade that they should be 
muzzled while they trod the corn. 
Deut. xxv, 4. Man's cruelty degrades 
man to a beast of burden, and forbids 
him to eat of the sheaves he bears. 

11. Within their walls — Compare 
Prov. xxiv, 31. Tread ... presses — 
See note, i, 13. Wilkinson {Domestic 
Life, etc., 63-65) says of the ancient 
Egyptians : " Their winepress was fre- 
quently in or near the vineyard; the 
grapes were trodden by the feet, but 
they were subjected to another process 
of twisting in a bag," etc. And suffer 
thirst — Mr Addison, in one of his let- 
ters from Italy, presents a similar pic- 
ture of its '"poor inhabitant," who 

btarves. in the midst of nature's bounty curst, 
And in the louden vinevard dies for thirst. 

Vol. V. — 12 



walls, and tread their winepresses, and 
suffer thirst. 12 Men groan from out 
of the city, and the soul of the wounded 
crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to 
them. 

1 3 They are of those that rebel against 
e the light ; they know not the ways 



Rom. 2. 17, 24 ; James 4. 17. 



12. Men groan — By changing the 
pointing of DTIO (men) to DT1E, (the 
dead,) Ewald, Zockler, etc., read, " Out 
of the cities the dying groan ; " but, 
against this, is the past participal form 
mathim, (the dead.) From out of the 
city — Like scenes of enormity to those 
that darken desert and town are en- 
acted within the crowded city, where, 
on the contrary, might be expected 
some outflow of sympathy, and not only 
the power, but the disposition, to re- 
dress wrong. The wounded — The 
slain, (Fiirst.) Even cold prose does 
not disdain to speak of "the cry of the 
slayers and the slain." — Thucydides, 
vii, 70, 71. Crieth out — To heaven for 
vengeance, (Hitzig.) Layeth not — 
Regardeth not. The W*& is the same as 
in chap, xxiii, 6, which see. Folly — 
In the sense of abomination or anom- 
aly, subversive of all moral order in 
the world. Note on chap, i, 22. Omit 
to them. 

Second half— Grossest malefactors 

AGAINST THE LIGHT AND AGAINST GOD, 
— WHOM ON ACCOUNT OF THE SECRECY 
OF THEIR CRIMES HEAVEN ALONE CAN 
PUNISH — EVEN THESE ESCAPE FROM ALL 
EARTHLY RETRIBUTION, BY AN OPPOR- 
TUNE DEATH, 13-25. 

First strophe — Blackest miscreants 
rebel against the light and burrow in the 
night, defying the God who professedly 
sees in secret, while they say, "No eye 
shall see me, " 13-17. 

13. Those that rebel against the 
light — Job now introduces another 
class of evildoers, the workers in the 
dark — murderers, thieves, adulterers. 
He has thus far spoken of the lawless 
who practice evil in the broad daylight, 
and those, too, whom law, "as yet un- 
mitigated by the Mosaic code." may 
have seemed to shield, such as usurers, 
tyrants, and rich, heartless employers. 
lie will now speak of greater monsters, 

O. T. 



182 



JOB. 



thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. 
14 h The murderer rising with the light 
killeth the poor and needy, and in the 
night is as a thief. 15 ' The eye also of 
the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, 
k saying, No eye shall see me : and 4 dis- 



h Psalm 10. 



Prov. 7. 9. k Psalm 10. 11. 



those who "have become rebels against 
the light," and who undermine all in- 
stitutions, human and divine. The 
light of the day is a fit emblem of a 
higher and purer essence shining with- 
in the soul of man. All sin begins in 
rebellion against the light. Its very 
essence is hatred of the light. John iii, 
20. The ways of light it eschews, and 
its paths it abhors, until the soul, per- 
verted and stunted, becomes one with 
the darkness. Man makes for himself 
the moral world wherein he shall dwell. 
And this, a sky of light or of darkness, 
has its reflex influences upon the soul. 
Under these it becomes a child of light, 
(1 Thess. v, 5,) and eventually light it- 
self, (Eph. v, 8.) or it becomes a " child 
of the night." and is in like manner 
transformed into darkness. Eph. v, 8. 

14. With the light— Literally, At 
the light. Toward daybreak, the time 
when travellers in the East, on account 
of the extreme heat of the day, pursue 
their journey. In the night — The 
murderer of the dawn is the thief of 
the night. Dr. Eobinson was aroused 
at night by a sudden alarm. "Our 
Arabs," he says, (i, 210,) "were evi- 
dently alarmed. They said, if thieves, 
they would steal upon us at midnight ; 
if robbers, they would come down upon 
us toward morning." 

15. Disguiseth his face — Puts a 
veil over the face : "Wetzstein thinks a 
woman's veil. "In Syrian towns," he 
says, "women's clothing is always 
chosen for such nocturnal sin. The 
man disguises himself in an izar, which 
covers him from head to foot, takes the 
mendil, veil, and goes with a lantern 
(without which at night every person 
is seized by the street watchman as a 
suspk-ious person) unhindered into a 
strange house." Juvenal speaks of the 
rank adulterer with his head muffled 
in a Gallic hood, viii, 144. 

1G. They — Literally, he, used col- 



guiscth Ms face. 16 In the dark they 
dig through houses, which they had 
marked for themselves in the daytime : 
1 they know not the light. 17 For the 
morning is to them even as the shadow 
of death : if one know them, they are 

4 Heb. setteth his face in secret. 1 John 3. 20. 



lectively for house-breakers. Dig 
through houses — In the East, the 
houses of the poorer classes are, ac- 
cording to Kitto, of three kinds : either 
of wicker hurdles daubed over with 
mud 5 or of mud, each layer being left 
to dry before another is laid on ; or of 
sun-dried bricks with which straw has 
been mixed in order to strengthen them. 
— See Kitto, Daily Bib. Illus., in loc. 
The GTreek called a burglar ro^wpt^oc, 
" one who digs through the wall." 
Which they had marked, etc. — 
Rather, TJieyiuho by day shut themselves 
up. Hesiod calls thieves "men who 
sleep by day." Apostasy from spirit- 
ual light manifests itself in aversion to 
natural light. 

17. Shadow of death — Delitzsch, 
Dillmann, and others, make this phrase 
equivalent to depth of night — the sub- 
ject of the verb. The passage reads, 
For to them all, the depth of night is 
morning : because they know the terrors 
of thick darkness (shadow of death.) 
Know — To be familiar with. Merce- 
rus had early and fortunately hit up- 
on the sense, "Nocturnal terrors are 
familiar to him ; he neither fears nor 
cares for them. . .as if he had entered 
into a compact with them that they 
should not hurt him." Midnight is his 
morning. The shadow of death is his 
daybreak when he rises to his work. 
He is as much at home in the horrors 
of darkness as the good are in the light 
of day. 

18-21. Clericus regards this passage 
as one of the most difficult in Holy 
Scripture. Job seems to argue against 
himself, (xxi,7,) and to have surrendered 
the citadel to his foes. Some moderns 
(Dathe, Umbreit, etc.) follow the Sep- 
tuagint and Vulgate in regarding these 
verses as an imprecation, thus : " May 
he be light (swift) on the face of the 
waters," and thus svnftly hasten to his 
doom. Others (Ewalcl, Hirtzel, and 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



163 



in the terrors of the shadow of death. 

18 He w swift as the waters ; their 
portion is cursed in the earth: he be- 
Iioldeth not the way of the vineyards. 

19 Drought and heat 5 consume the snow 
waters: so doth the grave those which have 

5 Hebrew, violently take. 



Dillmann) suppose that Job is ironical, 
and that he parodies the sentiments of 
his friends ; others still (Stickel, Welte, 
and Halm) that he repeats their views 
only the more emphatically to contro- 
vert and refute them. But none of 
these opinions meet the demands of the 
passage. Rosenmuller, Delitzsch, and 
Canon C ok are right in looking upon 
it in general as simply a description of 
the unperturbed fate of such sinners as 
those he has just described. Like the 
Psalmist (lxxiii, 3-5) under dark temp- 
tation, he sees in their death no marks 
of divine displeasure. Like a bubble 
on the flood, (verse 18,) or an evan- 
ishing stream of the desert, (verse 19,) 
the grave (sheol) silently swallows 
them up. 

Second strophe — Wealthy and re- 
spectable evildoers, (18-21,) widely differ- 
ing from the miscreants he has just de- 
scribed, (13-17,) sink into sheol like a 
bubble on the stream, or snow waters in 
the desert sands, and escape long-pro- 
tracted suffering and slow-footed justice, 
18-21. 

1 8. He is swift as the waters — 
Better, Light is he on the face of the 
waters. A figure similar to that of the 
text appears in Hosea x, 7, " He is like 
foam (a twig, Sept.) on the face of the 
water." Borne onward by the current, 
he is swift to disappear ; while justice, 
with limping foot, (pedepoena claudo. — 
Horace, Garm., iii, 2.) is too slow-paced 
to overtake him. Men may curse his 
''portion" when he is gone, but what 
cares he in the grave for public opinion ? 
An exquisite stroke is that of the poet, 
He beholdeth not the way of the 
vineyards : scene of delights to him — 
of many a cool and shady walk — though 
of stern oppression for the poor, (verses 
6 11.) The picture may remind the 
reader of a similar, but no more touch- 
ing, one in " The Elegy." that of the 
warm precincts of a cheerful dag, on 



sinned. 20 The womb shall forget him ; 
the Avorm shall feed sweetly on him ; m he 
shall be no more remembered ; and wick- 
edness shall be broken as a tree. 2 1 He 
evil n entreateth the barren that beareth 
not : and doeth not good to the widow. 



m Prov. 10. 7 ; Isa. 26. 14.- 



lSam.l. 



which the soul, departing, casts "one 
longing, lingering look behind." The 
view of Carey and Hengstenberg, that 
Job speaks of pirates in this verse, is 
untenable. 

19. Consume the snow waters — 
The thought of the first clause of the 
preceding verse Job now proceeds to 
illustrate by an emblematic proverb. 
Travellers tell us of mountain streams 
which have their rise in beds of snow, 
and which, as they descend into the 
plains, glide gently through the sands, 
each day becoming smaller, until at last 
the rivulet yields to the hot sky above 
and the parched sands beneath, and dis- 
appears in the arid wastes. Seevi, IT. 
Thus the grave (sheol) swallows up 
those that have sinned. " Job con- 
cedes to his friends that the wicked 
perish in their turu. But he cannot 
see in this a divine chastisement, for 
this is the common lot of men." — 
Renan. 

20. No more remembered — Noth- 
ing he recks, though a mother forget, 
and his name be blotted out from among 
men. Sweet to hi m shall be the worm, 
that is, the grave. Like a tree has the 
wicked man (wickedness) been broken 
suddenly from life, from its responsi- 
bilities and its tribunals. See note on 
xxi, 13. 

21. He evil entreateth — Better, 
He who evil entreated. The sterile wo- 
man, having no son to defend her, is 
taken for a type of feebleness. (Renan.) 
Doeth not good — An inscription in a 
tomb at Benihassan says of a ruler, " He 
injured no little child, he oppressed no 
widow ... he treated the widow as a 
woman with a husband to protect her." 
— Bun-sen, Egypt, v, 726-729. 

Third strophe — Tyrants, too, God up- 
holds in life, delivering them from dan- 
gerous sickness; until at last, ripe in 
years, they sink into the grave, bearing 
no marks of divine displeasure, 22-25. 



164 



JOB. 



22 He draweth also the mighty with his 
power : he riseth up, 6 and no man is sure 
of life. 23 Though it be given him to be 
in safety, whereon he resteth ; yet °his 
eyes are upon their ways. 24 They are 
exalted for a little while, but 7 are gone 
and brought low ; they are 8 taken out 
of the way as all others, and cut off as 

6 Or, he trusteth not his own life. o Psa. 11.4; 

Prov. 15. 3. 



22. He draweth — Literally, He 
(God) preserveth the mighty by his power. 
For a similar use of "i\&tt in the sense 

of "preserve," "prolong," see Psalm 
xxxvi, 10; lxxxv, 5; Isa. xiii, 22. As 
frequently before, Job now shrinks from 
mentioning the name of Deity in such 
painful connexion. No man is sure 
of life — Hebrew, He (the wicked) 
riseth up and (though) he trusted not in 
life — that is. despaired of life. Canon 
Cook calls attention to hhayin, life, with 
its plural termination in, instead of im, 
which has been held to denote a late 
age for the book, and cites the Moab- 
itic stone to show that the termination 
an is very ancient. 

23. Given. . .in safety, etc. — Rath- 
er, He (God) giveth him to be in safety, 
and he is sustained. His eyes — God's 
eyes are upon their ways, in order to 
keep and preserve them. 

24. But are gone — Better, And are 
no more. And they are brought lovj ; like 
all, are they gathered, and cut off as the 
tops of the ears of corn. Taken out of 
the way — Kaphats, gathered; "snatch- 
ed away," (Delitzsch,) "crumpled to- 
gether," (Dillmann.) Underneath the 
word, as Job uses it, lies the idea, De- 
litz-ch thinks, "of housing, gathering 
into a barn." This, together with the 
following figure, bears the look of a 
reply to Eliphaz, with his rural picture 
of the death of the just. Chap, v, 26. 
Mature in wickedness, malefactors are 
cut off with no more evidence of divine 
judgment upon them than belongs to 
all mankind. Thus Job has turned the 
finery built fortress of the friends, and 
left them without an argument. His 
view of the orb of truth, however, has 
been of the side where the shadow 
was deepest. In the heat of debate he 
has magnified single instances intogen- 



the tops, of the ears of corn. 25 And il 
it be not so now, who will make me a 
liar, and make my speech nothing worth! 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite, 
and said, 2 Dominion and fear art 
with him ; he maketh peace in his higt 



Heb. are not.- 



Heb. closed up. 



erals, and left a painful impression as 
to the providence of God in this world. 
The reader cannot, however, but feel, 
even here, that Job has confidence that 
God can and will solve the mystery. 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Bildad's Third and Last Reply. 

1. Then answered Bildad — Job's 
burning desire (chap, xxiii) to meet his 
Judge, leads Bildad to contrast the in- 
finite and overwhelming glory of God 
with the corruption and meanness of 
man. How shall such a being — a 
worm bred in corruption — presume to 
appear in the presence of Him whose 
armies cannot be counted, and whose 
all pervading glory casts into shade the 
stars, and even the moon, so that it 
shineth not. This brief and sublime 
speech is the forlorn hope of a sinking 
cause — the brilliant flash of a signal 
gun at sea that tells to night and storm 
that all is lost. " It is an extraordina- 
ry refinement of the poet, that he has 
kept the last speech of the three friends 
free from direct accusations, and has, 
as it were, gathered and concentrated 
in it all that was true in the speeches 
of the friends." — Ebrard. 

Double strophe — The infinite ex- 
altation of God raises him above 
arraignment by such a creature as 

MAN, 2-6. 

a. In any conceivable comparison of 
man with God (El) the inconceivable ad- 
vantage must ever be with the All-pow- 
erful, 2-4. 

2. Peace in his high places — One of 
the varied glimpses into the angel world 
that this book affords. It signifies 
either the order, tranquillity, and bliss, 
which his love has established among 
the heavenly hosts, as unfailing results 
of universal obedience to his law, oi 



CHAPTER XXV. 



165 



places. 3 Is there any number of his 
armies ? and upon whom doth not a his 
light arise? 4 b Ho\v then can man be 
justified with God? or how can he be 
clean that is born of a woman ? 5 Be- 
hold even to the moon, and it shineth 
not ; yea, the stars are not pure in his 



a James 1. 17. b Chap. 4. 17, &c. ; 15. 14, 



else the peace which followed the subju- 
gation and banishment of angels that 
sinned ; a Scripture truth, traces of 
which are found in the mythologies of 
most nations. The allusion to armies in 
the next verse countenances the latter 
view. Compare iv, 18; xv, 15. 

3. Armies — The idea is not so much 
of hostile array as of harmony, grada- 
tion, discipline, and subjection. The 
writer to the Hebrews speaks (xii, 22) 
of " myriads, the festal host of angels." 
(Alford.) Bildad rises higher, and asks, 
"Is there number to his armies?'" 
His light — All light emanates from 
God, whether it be that which rises 
upon the evil and the good alike (Matt. 
v, 45), or the glory of God that lighteus 
the heavenly world. (Rev. xxi, 23.) 
Delitzsch and Ewald take the sense to 
be that of excellence : over whom (that 
is, over which of those beings of light) 
does it not rise, leaving them behind, 
and exceeding them in brightness. 

4. Justified with God — Just with 
God. Same word as in iv, 17 andix, 2. 
Sin and corruption are no more insep- 
arable in the human heart than justifi- 
cation and regeneration in the divine 
scheme. No false religion, not even 
enlightened Buddhism, can answer the 
momentous questions of Bildad. ""What 
is the use of platted hair, fool ? What 
of the raiment of goat-skins? Within 
thee there is ravening, but the outside 
thou makest clean/ — Buddha, Path of 

Virtue, section 394. Clean... born of 
a woman — Crates used to say that it 
was impossible to find a man who had 
not fallen, just as every pomegranate 
had a bad grain in it. {Diogenes Laer- 
tius, vi, s. v.) 

b. In the sinfulness and corruption of an 
entire race, Job may certainly find occa- 
sion for humiliation and repentance, 4-6. 

5. It shineth not — The moon pales 
its light in the presence of God. As 



sight. 6 How much less man, that is c a 
worm ? and the son of man, which is a 
worm ? 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

BUT Job answered and said, 2 How 
hast thou helped him that is with- 
out power ? how savest thou the arm 

Psalm 130. 3 ; 143. 2. c Psalm 22. 6. 

no mention is made of the sun, some 
have supposed it was then night. Not 
pure — He means not the taint that 
comes from sin, as in this world, but 
metaphorically the dazzling sheen of 
the starry hosts; (a high symbol of pu- 
rity among men ;) even this is tainted 
when compared with the purity of the 
infinitely pure God. 

6. Worm . . . worm — Two distinct 
Hebrew words. The worms were both 
kinds bred in putridity. The latter, 

n^Tifi, was the insect from which the 

scarlet colour was obtained^ and is used 
in Isa. i, 18 as a symbol for sin of the 
deepest hue, and in Isa. xli, 14 as one 
of helplessness. It was this worm that 
destroyed Jonah's gourd. The Jews 
say, "that if a man hold a worm in his 
hand, all the water in Jordan can not 
wash him clean while he holds it 
there." — Lightfoot, Works, vii, 415. 
Hengstenberg observes it is very sig- 
nificant for the speech of Bildad that 
it should have consisted of just five 
verses, the signature of the half, the in- 
complete. A continuation of the speech 
might have led to the renewal of direct 
reproaches against Job. But these 
will not cross his lips. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Job's Eighth Reply. 
1. But Job answered — As Bildad 
had made no reply to his argument, 
Job, in the deepest spirit of sarcasm, 
fills out the jejune speech of the former 
with a transcendent description of the 
power, dominion, and works of God. 
Bildad had essayed the heavens ; Job, 
on adventurous wing, explores the 
under world of the dead ; looks down 
upon "the earth, that, self-balanced 
from her centre hung;" pores "upon 
the clouds and firmament that veil the 
throne of God ; " and "passes the flam- 



166 



JOB. 



tlmt hath no strength ? 3 How hast thou 
counselled Mm that hath no wisdom ? 
and how hast thou plentifully declared 
the thing as it is ? 4 To whom hast 



1 Or, with the 



ing bounds of time and space " to where 
the dominion of darkness is unbroken. 
God's breath, he says, garnished the 
heavens, and "his hand pierced the 
fleeing serpent." The climax is reached 
in a deity triumphant over evil. All 
this is " a whisper- word " of the might 
and glory of God. 

First division — Sharp rebuke of 
Bildad, 2-4. 

Strophe — Job compliments Bildad on 
his inapposite discourse, vmich has served 
not only to exhaust the subject but Bildad 
himself, 2-4. 

3. Plentifully — Job ridicules the 
brevity of Bildad's speech. The first 
four verses are exquisitely ironical. 

4. Whose spirit — By whose inspi- 
ration hast thou spoken ? He insinu- 
ates that Bildad has borrowed his few 
meagre thoughts, for instance, from 
Eliphaz, iv, 11-21 ; xv, 14-16. 

Second division — An incomparable 
description op the dlvine majesty 
and Glory, 5-14. 

Strophe a — Not only are the heavenly 
hosts pacified by the majestic presence of 
the Lord as Bildad had shown, (xxv, 1,) 
but the shades of the under world tremble at 
the outgoings of the divine power ; a power 
also displayed in upholding the world, 5-7. 

5. With his characteristic abruptness 
Job launches into his subject, in medias 
res. Job first portrays the glory of 
God as felt in sheol, the world of the 
dead. The verse should be read, The 
dead tremble beneath the waters, and the 
inhabitants thereof Dead things— 
D^STin, The Rephaim. This word, pri- 
marily used of a race of giants, (Gen. 
xiv, 5, xv, 20,) was in the course of 
time applied to the dead, (Psalms 
lxxxviii, 10 ; Isa. xiv, 9, 19; xxvi, 14; 
Prov. h, 18 ; ix, 18 ; xxi, 16,) to whom 
the imagination attributed a towering 
form. Vitringa thinks that the word 
originally denoted the shades of the 
departed, and was transferred to denote 
men of gigantic bulk, and so finally 
became an appellation of both. (Com. 



thou uttered words? and whose spirit 
came from thee ? 

5 Dead things are formed from under 
the waters, * and the inhabitants there- 



inhabitants. 



on Isaiah, i, 433.) The word is cognate 
with the Arabic rafaa, "to soften," and 
signifies "the weak," "the relaxed," 
(Delitzsch,) or " the shadowy," (Furst,) 
corresponding to the Greek ol nauovret,, 
"the wearied," also "the relaxed," an 
epithet of the dead. The best modern 
Hebraists accordingly ascribe to the Be- 
phaim here spoken of the classic mean- 
ing of Manes, ("the Shades.") i. e., be- 
ings consciously alive. This word also 
occurs in the Phoenician inscription of 

Sargon. Are formed — v?in\ sub- 
stantially the same word, in Hab. iii, 10 
is rendered trembled, which is its mean- 
ing here, according to Hahn. Zockler, 
Hitzig, etc. Compare James ii, 19. 
Whether the word be derived from 
hhoul or hhalal, it carries with it the 
idea of suffering, a fact which leads 
Delitzsch, Dillmann, etc., to translate 
" are put to pain." This passage is of 
moment not only in that it indicates 
and confirms Job's belief in the con- 
sciousness of the dead, but also that 
some of them — those gigantic in wick- 
edness, {Rephaim) — trembled, or, as 
others say, " writhed " (T. Lewis) be- 
neath the display of God's power. 
Under the waters — The terrors of 
sheol were heightened by the popular 
notion not only that it was subter- 
ranean, but that it extended beneath 
the sea, with its many monsters. The 
strange horror of death by water which 
possessed the ancient mind, (see note 
of Servius on the iEneid,i, 93,) possibly 
taking its rise in the awfulness of the 
deluge, may account for the association 
in the popular mind of the abode of a 
portion of the dead with the great deep. 
" That even these dwellers in the under 
world, although otherwise without feel- 
ing or motion, and at such an im- 
measurable distance from God's dwell- 
ing-place, should be touched and terri- 
fied by the workings of the divine 
agency — this is a much stronger evi- 
dence of God's greatness than aught 
that Bildad had alleged." — Hirtzel. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



167 



of. 6 a Hell is naked before him, and 
destruction hath no covering. 7 b He 
stretcheth out the north over "the empty 
place, and hangeth the earth upon noth- 



a Psalm 139. 8, 11 ; Prov. 15. 11 ; Hebrews 4. 13. 



6. Hell — Hebrew, sheol. Naked — 
Compare Heb. iv, 13. Destruction — 
Heb. Abaddon. The rabbins were led, 
by Psalm lxxxviii, 11, where the same 
word is used, to regard Abaddon as 
the nethermost of the two worlds into 
which they divided the under world. 
(See Excursus III, page 74.) 

7. The north — Delitzsch shows 
satisfactorily that we are not to under- 
stand by this the northern portion of 
the earth, as is held by Dillmann, etc., 
but the northern sky, which, with the 
ancients, was of more consideration 
than the southern. In the northern 
hemisphere were the great constella- 
tions mentioned by Job — the Bear, the 
Serpent, Orion, etc. Among the an- 
cient poets the north pole was used 
synonymously for the heavens, and in 
this sense the north may be employed 
here. The arctic desolation disclosed 
by modern exploration singularly cor- 
responds to the tohu, "desolateness," 
over which Job in figure spreads out 
" the north." Empty place — Hebrew, 
tohu. Same word as in Gen. i, 2. That 
the sky should overarch the immeasur- 
able void without visible supports was 
always a marvel to the Oriental mind. 
Hence the poetical invention of pillars. 
See ch. ix, 6. Thus the Koran, Sur. xiii, 
" It is Allah who has built the heavens 
on high, without the support of visible 
pillars." Nothing — The Hebrew word 
is a compound, HDyJil, literally, not what, 

that is, nothing, (no-thing,) and is found 
in the Scriptures only here. T his dis- 
closure, which for so many ages preced- 
ed its scientific confirmation, stands out 
in yet more bold relief when compared 
with the mythologies of other ancient 
nations. The father of modern science, 
Lord Bacon, incidentally speaks of this 
among other passages : " The book of 
Job, likewise, will be found, if examined 
with care, pregnant with the secrets 
of natural philosophy. For example, 
when it says, 'he stretcheth out the 



ing. 8 r He bindeth up the waters in 
his thick clouds ; and the cloud is not 
rent under them. 9 He holdeth back 
the face of his throne, and spreadeth 



b Chap. 9. 8 ; Psa. 24. 2 ; 104, 2, Ac. 



Prov. 



north,' etc., the suspension of the earth 
and the convexity of the heavens are 
manifestly alluded to. . . .So in anoth- 
er place, 'who maketh Arcturus,' etc., 
ix, 9 ; he again refers to the depression 
of the south pole in the expression, 
' interiora ausiri, ' ' chambers of the 
south,' because the southern stars are 
not seen in our hemisphere. " — Ad- 
vancement of Learning, book i. Kepler, 
the great astronomer, treating of the 
yet unsolved problems of science, thus 
reverently speaks of the disclosures 
made in the book of Job: "These, and 
other similar things, lie hidden in the 
pandects of corning times, and are not 
to be understood until God, the arbiter 
of the ages, shall have unfolded this 
book (Job) to mortals." — Cited by De- 
litzsch. The Jerusalem Gemara says, 
that Alexander the Great is sometimes 
represented as holding a ball in his 
hand, because he had ascertained that 
th£ earth, which he had traversed to 
conquer, had the figure of a sphere. 
(Avoda Sara, chap, iii.) For a brief 
sketch of the conflicting opinions of 
the ancients upon this subject the 
reader is referred to Etheridge's "He- 
brew Literature," p. 272. 

Second strophe — In lofty flight JoVs 
imagination rises from the under world 
and the earth to the heavens, the seat of 
God 's throne, and thence surveys the en- 
shrouding clouds (Psa. xviii, 11) and the 
confines of light and darkness, 8-10. 

8. The waters in his thick clouds 
— That an inconceivable weight of 
water should be suspended midheaven, 
not unlike the earth, self-balanced, 
struck Job as a never ceasing mani- 
festation of divine power. Compare 
xxxvii, 16. 

9. Holdeth back— Whoveileth. The 
word TnX, used in Neb. vii, 3 in the 

sense of barring (the gate,) also signifies 
"hold fast," (seexxiii, 11,) or "fasten 
together." 2 Chron. ix, 18. In this, the 
sole case of the Piel form, it is generally 



168 



JOB. 



his cloud upon it. 10 d He hath com- 
passed the waters with bounds, a until 
the day and night come to an end. 
11 The pillars of heaven tremble, and 



c?Chap. 38. 8; Psa. 33. 7; 104. 9; Prov. 8. 29; 
Jer. 5. 22. 2 Heb. until the end of light with 



interpreted to mean "enshroud," or 
"inclose," although Merx understands 
its meaning to be that of bearing or 
holding up, with the idea that G-od 
miraculously holds up the throne on 
which he sits. But the text, it is to be 
remembered, speaks of " the outside," 
" the face," of the throne. It is a 
beautiful poetical conception that the 
firmament not only reflects the splen- 
dour of God, (Exod. xxiv, 10,) but also 
veils his throne (literally, the face of his 
throne) from human eyes. Isa. lxvi, 1. 
All nature may be regarded as a veil 
of deity "through whose mantling 
folds " he deigns to show so much of 
his being as eye or heart can bear. 
Compare Amos ix, 6 ; Psa. civ, 3. 

10. He hath compassed the 
waters with bounds — The Syriac 
gives a satisfactory rendering of this 
difficult passage thus, He hath described 
a circle on the face of the waters. Accord- 
ing to some, (Rosenmiiller,) the idea is, 
He has appointed a rotary motion of 
the heavens round and above the sea, 
by which the vicissitudes of day and 
night are regulated. The more simple 
view of Dr. A. Clarke is the more correct 
one, "Perhaps this refers merely to the 
circle of the horizon, the line that ter- 
minates light and commences darkness, 
called here, until the completion of light 
with, darkness" which Pareau renders 
more freely, "unto the confines of light 
and darkness." The use of the word 
taklith, "end," in Neh. hi, 21, shows 
that the marginal rendering here is 
substantially correct. Comp. Job xi, 7. 
There is no occasion for attributing to 
Job ancient misconceptions, (Virgil, 
Georg., i, 24*7,) which lasted well into the 
middle ages — that the earth is sur- 
rounded by the ocean, on the other side 
of which the region of darkness begins. 
This view of possible misconception, 
held by Dillmann, Hitzig very properly 
scouts. 
Third strophe — The mightiest forces of 



are astonished at his reproof. 12 ,: Ile 
divideth the sea with his power, and by 
his understanding he smiteth through 
3 the proud. 13 r By his Spirit he hath 



darkness. e Ex. 14. 21 ; Psa. 74. 13 ; Isa. 51. 15 ; 

Jer. 31. 35. 3 Ileb. pride. — -/Psa. 33. 6. 



nature are simply the agencies of the di- 
vine will, a will which subdues to itself the 
most discordant elements of the physical 
and moral world. All that we can know, 
and all that we can think, of God, is but 
a zephyr of his presence as he walks in 
the visible garden of the universe, (Gen. 
hi, 8,) 11-14. 

11. Pillars of heaven — See note 
on verse 7 and chap, ix, 6. That the 
reference of Job to the popular belief 
that the mountains, as "pillars," upheld 
the heavens, must be figurative, is evi- 
dent from verse 7, where the power of 
God is said to uphold the north (the 
heaven) over the empty place. Tremble 
— The Hebrew yerophaphou, occurring 
only here, may be fancied to oscillate 
like the earth-quivering it is intended 
to convey. Reproof — The thunder, 
which is often called "the voice of 
Grod," was regarded as his rebuke of 
the world. Psa. civ, V. By a powerful 
personification, the mountain heights 
(pillars of heaven) are represented as 
being astonished with terror ! Psalm 
cxiv, 6. 

12. Divideth the sea — A prime 

idea of VJ") is "rouse," thence terrify. 

Others, however, guided by its other 
root idea, translate it quell. Smiteth 
through — Mahhats is rendered also to 
crush, break in pieces. The proud — 
Hebrew, rahab, (see on ix, 13,) is par- 
allel to sea, and seems to call for "a 
sea-monster " of some kind, which is 
the version of the Septuagint. Such a 
monster may have represented to the 
popular mind the power of evil, and 
thus have paved the way for the allu- 
sion to " the fleeing serpent " of the 
next verse. Dillmann has as little 
reason for supposing that Job makes 
use of a traditionary saying which was 
equivalent to " he hath sillied the rag- 
ing sea," as others have for referring 
the text to the exodus, and the crush- 
ing of pride at the Red Sea. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



169 



garnished the heavens ; his hand hath 
formed B the crooked serpent. 14 Lo, 
these are parts of his ways ; but b how 



a Isa. 27. 1. 



13. Garnished the heavens — 

Literally, By his breath the heavens 
are bright. At the root of Shiphra, a 
woman's name in Exod. i, 15, lies the 
idea of beauty. " The word is used," 
says Scott, " by the elegant Hariri of a 
beautiful woman unveiling and shining 

ont to her admirers." Formed — iTOh, 

t ; 

pierced through. So the Syriac, Arabic, 
Fiirst, Hirtzel, Dillmann, Ewald, Hit- 
zig, etc. The same word in the parti- 
cipial form is used in Isa. li, 9, where 
it unquestionably signifies the piercing 
of the dragon. Some, however, give 
to the word a different root form, and 
make it to signify, as in the Authorized 
Version, to "form," or "create:" — 
Welte, Penan, Conant, etc. Crooked 
serpent — Better, the fleeing serpent. 
The Septuagint renders the phrase, 
"he destroyed the apostate serpent," 
which induced Tyndale to translate it, 
" With his hand hath he wounded the 
rebellyous serpent." In the opinion 
of some there is a reference to a myth- 
ological legend, as in chapter iii, 8, 
(see note.) On the contrary, as the 
mention of the sea suggested its Rahab, 
so that of the sky suggests its Serpent, 
a constellation that from the remotest 
ages has borne either this or kindred 
names. This constellation, (Draco, the 
Dragon,) with its nearly a hundred 
stars and its head beneath the foot of 
Hercules, winds its way between the 
greater and lesser Bears, almost half 
around the polar circle. Popular im- 
agination conceived that the hand of 
God pierced it through as it strove to 
escape, and thus transfixed it in its 
course. The tragical story of the gar- 
den is seemingly transferred to the 
skies. Hitzig links "the fleeing ser- 
pent" with " the host of the height," 
(Isa. xxiv, 21,) and regards it as a veil 
of a TTVEVfiariKOv tov Tcovr/pov, or, evil 
intelligences, kindred to Eph. vi, 12. 
Prof. Lee and Wordsworth see in the 
passage a transition from the works 
of creation to that of redemption. The 
wounding of the serpent, also para- 



little a portion is heard of him ? ' but the 
thunder of his power who can under- 
stand ? 

1 Cor. 13. 9, 12. i 1 Sam. 2. 10 ; Psalm 29. 3. 

phrased iu Isaiah xxvii, 1, where this 
very "fleeing serpent" is said to be 
pierced with the sword, may harbiu- 
ger the triumph of the cross, in which 
Christ bruised the head of the serpent. 
If so, the sublime description 5f the 
works of creation culminates in the 
vastly greater work of redemption. 
The two verses, 12 and 13, are thus 
linked in the one common thought — 
the final subjugation of evil. Bildad 
speaks of the uncleanness and hope- 
lessness of man, (verse 4;) — Job's re- 
ply, far reaching and in shadowy vis- 
ion, embraces the cross. 

14. Parts — Ends; "the extreme 
point; " " the border." Exod. xxv, 19; 
xxviii, 7. The Arabian schoolmen 
called our present knowledge the ends, 
or off -cuttings of things. " They com- 
pared it to the threads which stick out 
from the lower or wrong side of the 
tapestry which the great Artificer is 
weaving above." Compare 1 Cor. xiii, 
9, 12. But how little a portion, etc. 
— Literally, what a vihisper-word is that 
we hear. For shemets, "whisper," see 
note on iv, 12. It was a pleasing con- 
ceit of Pythagoras that the heavenly 
bodies in their motions emitted sounds 
which were blended together in musi- 
cal harmony. The reason we do not 
hear it, Cicero ssljs, is because "the 
sound is so loud as to transcend our 
power of hearing." " Tantus sonitus 
ut eum aures hominum capere non 
possint." — Be Republica, vi, 18. Kep- 
ler's discoveries give countenance to 
the very old conception of the philoso- 
phers. Schlottmann's interpretation, 
that what we hear of God's ways and 
works is but an echo of the distant 
thunder, falls greatly below the thought 
of Job, whose figure is that of a whis- 
pered word compared with the mightier 
thunder, "the thunder of his power." 
May it not be just as true still, now 
that science has brought to our knowl- 
edge "a hundred million worlds," that 
these are the outskirts of his universe, 
the fringes of his royal garment, "the 
ends of his ways?" 



170 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XXVIT. 

MOREOVER Job i continued his 
parable, and said, 2 As God liv- 
eth, a who bath taken away my judg- 



1 Hebrew, added to take up. a Chap. 34. 5. 

■ — 2 Hebrew, made my soul bitter, Ruth 1. 20 ; 



transition to the TJnravelment. 

Chaps, xxvii-xxxi. 
JOB TRIUMPHANT. 

His Pinal Address to his Friends. 

Chaps, xxvii, xxviii. 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
1. Job waits for an answer. The 
friends are silenced. He is now mas- 
ter of the field. The mists that sur- 
rounded his opponents had served to 
magnify them and their cause. Job 
now stands forth in the clear sunlight 
of truth, alone and conqueror. He 
confirms his integrity by the most sol- 
emn appeal to G-odand his conscience. 
No one, he says, could maintain such 
hope in the sight of death, such trust 
in God's help, such joyous confidence 
in him, and be conscious of such guilt 
as they had charged. (Verses 8-10.) 
Now that he has driven his friends 
from their extreme positions, he re- 
views the ground he has gained, and 
brings out into stronger relief some 
principles he himself had advanced, at 
least in theory, one of which was, that 
the prosperity of the wicked was ap- 
parent, and could not endure, (xxi, 16, 
2i, etc.,) but which, in the heat of the 
controversy, had not received their 
proper attention. (See note on verse 
13.) His argument throughout had as- 
sumed a future adjustment of wrong 
and sin, (verse 8.) But this is not suf- 
ficient. The doctrine of future awards 
lacks substantial basis if there be no 
retributive government of the wicked 
in this life. Parable — Mashed: a dis- 
course conveying important truth in 
language concise and to a high degree 
poetical. Balaam took up his parable. 
Num. xxiii, 1. " The introduction of 
the ultimatum, as mashal, reminds one 
of ' the proverb (el-methel,) seals it,' in 
the mouth of the Arab, since in com- 
mon life it is customary to use a pithy 
saying as the final proof at the con- 
clusion of a speech." — Delitzsch. The 
phrase Job " continued to take up his 



rnent ; and the Almighty, who hath 
2 vexed my soul ; 3 All the while my 
breath is in me, and 3 the spirit of God 
is in my nostrils ; 4 My lips shall not 



2 Kings 4. 27. 3 That is, the breath which 

God gave him-, Genesis 2. 7. 



parable," serves to mark the pause that 
must have ensued upon the close of his 
reply to Bildad, while he waited in vain 
to hear from the discomfited Zophar. 

Section first — Job's renewed as- 
severation op ms innocence is con- 
firmed UNDER THE SANCTIONS OF AN 
oath, 2-10. Hengstenberg and Hitzig 
divide the section into two strophes. 

a. The oath of his innocence he takes 
with the full consciousness of its gravity, 
and with a determination to maintain it 
against all gainsayers, 2-6. 

2. As God liveth — Literally, living 
is God, that is, "by the living God, "an 
Arabic and Hebrew form of oath. Ras- 
chi cites from Rabbi Joshua, that Job 
must have served God from love, be- 
cause no one swears by the life of a 
king unless he loves the king. Com- 
pare Psa. lxiii, 11, and Isa. xlviii, 1. 
My judgment, etc. — My right. God 
has not only rejected his cause, but 
embittered his soul. This cry of wrong 
demonstrates that Job is still far from 
fitted to undo the twisted knot of his 
sufferings, and rise erect in true man- 
hood, renewed through sorrow ; while 
it most admirably paves the way for 
Elihu. 

3. All the while, etc. — Dillmann, 
Hitzig, and the Speaker's Commentary, 
read, for whole even yet is my breath in 
me ; that is, notwithstanding his weight 
of sorrow he feels himself "sound, 
capable of knowing and holding what 
is true and right ; " in a condition not 
unlike that essential to the making of 
a will, "being in sound mind." The 
Authorized Version, which is approved 
by Gesenius, Furst, and Hengstenberg, 
makes quite as good sense. As long 
as he lives he will adhere to what he is 
about to swear. TJmbreit makes tins 
verse a part of the oath. Spirit (or 
breath) of God — An allusion to the 
Mosaical account of man's creation. 
Gen.ii, V. 

4. My lips — Literally, If my lips. 
The oatli introduced b} r the usual form 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



171 



speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter 
deceit. 5 God forbid that I should jus- 
tify you : till I die b I will not remove 
mine integrity from me. 6 My right- 
eousness I c hold fast, and will not let 
it go : d my heart shall not reproach me 



& Chap. 2. 9; 13. 15. cChap. 2. 3. cZActs 

24. 1(3. 1 Hebrew, from mu days. e Matt. 

16. 26; Luke 12. 20. 

DX, im, commences with this verse : He 
will speak the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth. 

5 . God "forbid — Literally, Far be it 
from me, ui] jevolto, (Rom. vi, 2,) to 
concede that you are right in the im- 
peachment of my righteousness, and 
thus to compromise the truth. Hitzig 
supposes " God " to be the subject of 
the textual form "iP'yn, in 2 Sam. xxiii, 

17, and follows frequent renderings of 
the word in the Septuagint, and its 
cognate meaning in the Arabic, by 
translating it, " God be gracious tome, 
if, " e tc. Mine integrity — A m ong the 
heaviest strokes that fell upon Job 
were the cruel aspersions against his 
integrity. 

6. My heart shall not reproach 
— My heart reproaches not one of my 
days. (Hitzig.) Job's heart, rendered 
by Luther "conscience," was, like the 
apostle's, ' : void of offence." "Friends" 
had charged him with secret sins as the 
source of his woes. He assures them, 
in the language of the Septuagint, "I 
am not conscious of having done wrong, 
aro7ra." See sermon of Sydney Smith 
in toe, on "The Reproaches of the 
Heart." 

b. As an incidental confirmation of 
his righteousness, Job adduces his trium- 
phant religious experience, and reasons 
that he who possesses such, cannot be as 
the wicked, 1-10. 

7. Let mine enemy be, etc. — 
Rather, Mine enemy must appear as the 
wicked, etc. The sentiments his an- 
tagonists have expressed are such as 
are held by the wicked. They who 
counsel to acts of hypocrisy as these 
had done, should be regarded as wicked. 
There is here no imprecation. It is 
simply the announcement of an import- 
ant truth : he who consciously antago- 
nizes truth must be himself accounted 
as untrue. 



4 so long as I live. 7 Let mine enemy 
be as the wicked, and lie that riseth up 
against me as the unrighteous. 8 c For 
what is the hope of the hypocrite, though 
he hath gained, when God taketh away 
his soul \ 9 f Will God hear his cry when 



/Chap. 35. 12; Psa. 18. 41 : 109. 7 ; Pro v. 1. 28; 
28. 9; Isa. 1. 15; Jer. 14. 12; Ezek. 8. 18; Micah 
3. 4 ; John 9. 31 ; James 4. 3. 

8. For — Job appeals to the want of 
religious experience on the part of the 
ungodly to show that he cannot be 
accounted such. Gained (unjustly) — 
Thus the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, 
Arnheim, Gesenius, Furst, etc. The 
exhaustive comment of Tayler Lewis 
abundantly shows that Zockler, (in 
Lange,) Dillmann, etc., are wrong in 
reading J^EP \D, "When he cutteth off." 

The transition from the prime meaning 
of batsali, "break off," "plunder " (for 
gain,) to its secondary meaning " gain," 
is easy and natural. The construction 
of Zockler, etc., mixes the metaphor, and 
demands, contrary to Hebrew usage, 
the same subject for two successive 
verbs, each preceded by ^ ; also it de- 
stroys the parallelism. The resem- 
blance between the text and the pro- 
found question of Christ (Mark viii, 36) 
is worthy of note. Taketh away — 
Literally, Draweth out, as a sword from 
its sheath, as in Dan. vii, 15, (see mar- 
gin,) where the body is called a sheath. 
The Talmud, the Hindu, and the Ro- 
man, (Pliny,) use the same metaphor. 
The Hindu Yedanta says, " The soul 
is in the body as in a sheath." — Cole- 
brook, Misc. Essays, i, 372. Gesenius 
(Thes., 855) cites a philosopher who, 
being despised by Alexander on ac- 
count of his ugliness, responded: "The 
body is nothing but the sheath of a 
sword in which the soul is concealed." 
While the figure of the text painfully 
expresses the resistance of the soul 
against its severance from the body, 
(compare Gen. xxxv, 18,) it assumes a 
separate existence for the soul. To 
speak of hope for a man after his death, 
unless the soul be conscious, would be 
a palpable absurdity. The passage is 
among the many of this book that take 
for granted the conscious existence of 
the wicked after death, and by impli- 
cation the immortality of all. 



172 



JOB. 



trouble cometh upon him? 10 g Will 
he delight himself in the Almighty ? will 
he always call upon God ? 

Ill will teach you 5 by the hand of 
God: that which ts with the Almighty 



q See chapter 22. 26, 27. 5 Or, being 



10. Delight himself — Same as in 
xxii, 26. If the ungodly have no such 
experience as his own, Job would have 
his friends infer that he must be right- 
eous. Always — Hebrew, In all time. 
Delight in God manifests itself in habit- 
ual communion with him. The ques- 
tion of Job is an unconscious exponent 
of his own unceasing life of prayer. 

Section second — A calm and formal 

STATEMENT OF JOB'S VIEWS CONCERNING 
THE LOT OF THE WICKED IN THIS, AND 
THEIR DOOM IN THE NEXT, LIFE, 11-23. 

Introductory strophe a — Experience 
has given man wisdom which should 
guard him against error in the interpre- 
tation of the mind and ways of God. 
With a noble feeling of conciliation he 
takes for his text the statement of the 
friends concerning the wicked, 11-13. 

11. By the — Concerning. Literally, 
in. Hand of God — The mystery of the 
divine government, which he proceeds 
tj unfold in this and the subsequent 
chapters. That which is with the 
Almighty — His dealings. Compare 
xii, 16, xv, 9; and see note on xxii, 14. 

12. Ye yourselves have seen it — 
The facts he is about to adduce are in 
keeping with their views. Job has, 
indeed, several times intimated, what 
he now expresses, that the prosperity 
of the wicked is not uninterrupted. 
Altogether vain — Literally, Vain in 
vanity, or vain even to vanity. Their 
folly partly consisted in making false 
use of the truth. The words they 
spoke coined themselves into a corre- 
sponding state of the heart, a truth 
forcibly implied in the verb ^3n, " t0 
speak vainly," (Gesenius,) "to be vain," 
(Furst.) " Hollow opinions hollow out 
the man." " They followed vanity and 
became vain." 2 Kings xvii, 15. 

13. In chapters xxi and xxiv Job had, 
in glowing terms, portrayed the pros- 
perity of the wicked; he now (verses 
13-23) guards his statement by con- 
ceding that wickedness is punished, 



will I not conceal. 12 Behold, all ye 
yourselves have seen it; why then are 
ye thus altogether vain ? 1 3 h This is 
the portion of a wicked man with God, 
and the heritage of oppressors, which 

in the hand, Ptc. h Chapter 20. 29. 



though not uniformly. His argument 
before seemed to deny punishment in 
this present life. Now that he has 
silenced his adversaries he desires to 
leave the argument in a condition more 
satisfactory, lest the wicked be em- 
boldened to sin without restraint. He 
employs against the friends the very 
terms they had used, gathering them up 
like so many weapons, which in their 
disastrous defeat they had left on the 
field, chap, xx, 29. Delitzsch suggests 
" that Job holds up the end of the evil- 
doer before the friends that they may 
infer from it that he is not an evildoer, 
whereas the friends held it up before 
Job that he might iufer from it that he 
is an evildoer.' 1 '' A. B. Davidson and 
others regard "the passage in question 
as a kind of summary by Job of the 
views of the friends on providence, 
which views he characterizes as ?3n» 

(verse 12,) " utter vanity," and quite 
insufficient to explain the facts. Hav- 
ing run over these views (verses 13-23) 
he proceeds to controvert them." Such 
an estimate is, however, erroneous, 
since Job distinctly declares (verses 
11, 12) his determination to set forth his 
own views. The speech stands forth 
in its rugged grandeur, self-declaratory 
of its Jobesque origin, and is in itself 
a refutation of those who would sacri- 
legiously ascribe it to the feeblest of 
the three, the passionate, parrot-like 
Zophar. Portion . . . heritage — The 
passage is taken almost verbatim from 
Zophar; chap, xx, 29. 

Strophe b— Having fully established 
his main position, that the virtuous may 
suffer, for instance as in his case, (2-10,) 
Job proceeds to give in detail the sufferings 
of a portion of the wicked in this present 
life. In admitting the sufferings of some 
of the wicked, he magnanimously p>roffers 
a ground of conciliation, with an implied 
condition that the friends sliould also admit 
the sufferings of the righteous, which they 
in the obstinacy of silence fail to do, 14-18. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



173 



they shall receive of the Almighty. 
14 ' It' his children be multiplied, it is 
for the sword: and his offspring shall 
not be satisfied with bread. 15 Those 
that remain of him shall be buried in 
death : and k his widows shall not weep. 

16 Though he heap up silver as the 
dust, and prepare raiment as the clay ; 

17 He may prepare it, but ' the just 



Deut. 28. 41 ; Esther 9. 10 ; Hosea 9. 13. 
k Psalm 78. 61. 



14. His children — Calamity hangs 
over his home also ; his children perish, 
too, some by war and some by famine. 
Job's glowing description of a godless 
family in chap. xxi. 8, he now qualifies 
by declaring their doom. It is painfully 
natural that desolate Job should first 
speak of the children of the wicked. 

15. Buried in death — Or, by death. 
They who escape war and famine shall 
fall by some fell pestilence that pre- 
cludes even a burial. Death himself 
shall administer the last sad rites — no 
funeral cortege, save wild beasts from 
the desert — no dirge ; even their " wid- 
ows shall not weep," " corruption alone 
shall be their tomb." A startling per- 
sonification. Comp. Jer. xvi, 4. The pes- 
tilence, in the Middle Ages, w r as called 
black death. The reader will recall pain- 
ful allusions to the death of Job's chil- 
dren which stained the speeches of the 
friends. His widows shall not weep 
— Comp. Jer. xxii, 18. The plural form 
" widows " points to pobygaiuy as a 
common practice of Job's times, and 
consequently to a remote age for the 
writing of this book. 

16. Raiment as the clay — As with 
Elizabeth, queen of England, the ward- 
robe of the rich in the East represented 
often untold sums of wealth. 

18. His house as a moth — The 
bouse that the moth builds rises on the 
ruin of the garment where it dwells. 
" By means of their maxillae these little 
larvae shear down the surface of various 
substances, and, uniting the particles 
by means of their glutinous silk, they 
thus form protecting habitations." — 
Uncyclo. Brit., ix, 217. So frail is the 
house that if the garment be shaken it 
perishes, iv, 19. As a booth — A frail 
and temporary shed erected for the use 
of those set to watch over vineyards 
and orchards. 



shall put it on, and the innocent shall 
divide the silver. 18 He buildeth his 
house as a moth, and m as a booth that 
the keeper maketh. 19 The rich man 
shall lie down, but he shall not be 
gathered : he openeth his eyes, and he 
ts not. 20 n Terrors take hold on him 
as waters, a tempest stealeth him away 
in the night. 21 The east wind car- 

ZProv.28.8; Eccles.2.26. mlsa.1.8; Lam.2.6. 

n Chap. 18. 11 ; Jonah 2. 3. 

Strophe c — Suddenly and with violence 
he dies, the scorn of nature and of man, re- 
jected and shot at by God himself, 19-23. 

19. The rich. . .lie down — He lieth 
down rich. Though the wicked man be 
rich at his death, he shall not be gath- 
ered; an obscure phrase, the mean- 
ing of which our translators have given 
correctly when they have made it of 
signification similar to Gen. xxv, 8 — 
"Abraham was gathered to his people." 
Since Abraham was buried in a land of 
strangers, and with Sarah only, the ex- 
pression cannot signify mere burial 
with the dead, but rather pre-supposes 
continued conscious existence, and im- 
plies probably the communion of the 
dead. Compare Cen. xv, 15 ; xxv, 8, 17 ; 
xxxv, 29 ; xlix, 29-33 ; Num. xx, 24, 
etc. The rendering of Ewald, Hirtzel. 
etc., follows the Septuagint, "he doeth 
it no more," that is, "he lies down for 
the last time," but is hardly justified 
by the form of the verb, which is pas- 
sive. The trivial reading of Umbreit, 
based upon a different pointing, " and 
nothing is robbed from him," Hitzig 
strangely enough accepts. He openeth 
his eyes — So sudden and unexpected 
is his death ; it is but a glance, an open- 
ing of the eye, and he is no more. Or 
it may express the surprise of the guilty 
soul when it awakens to consciousness 
in the unseen world. Luke xvi, 23. 

20. As waters- 1 — Suddenly, violently, 
continuously. " One terror after an- 
other, without intermission, as waters 
mix together in a flood." — Rabbi Levi. 
" That man, then," says Plato, " who 
discovers in his own life much iniquity, 
and, like children, constantly starts in 
his sleep, is full of terrors' and lives 
on with scarce a hope of the future." 
See, further, his " Republic," b. 1, ch. v. 

21. The east wind — A storm 
brought on by an east wind is generally 



174 



JOB. 



rieth him away, and he departeth : and 
as a storm hurleth him out of his place. 
22 For God shall cast upon him, and 
not spare : 6 he would fain flee out of his 
hand. 23 Men shall clap their hands 



6 Hebrew, in- fleeing he 



very destructive on account of its strong 
gusts, and it will even uproot the larg- 
est trees. ("Wetzstein.) This wind, ac- 
cording to " The Hamasa," is usually 
most violent at night. See xv, 2. 

22. He would fain flee — Liter- 
ally, Fleeing he flees. Hither and thither 
he flees before God's hand, but in vain. 

23. Men shall clap — It or he, used 
collectively. In the opinion of some, 
the storm is personified and represented 
as acting after the maimer of men when 
they condemn and hiss a public char- 
acter. The text properly supplies the 
word men. The accumulation of the ter- 
minations emo and omo (says Delitzsch) 
gives a tone of thunder and a gloomy 
impress to this conclusion of the descrip- 
tion of judgment, as those terminations 
frequently occur in the book of Psalms, 
where moral depravity is mourned and 
divine judgment threatened. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Section third — Panegyric of Wis- 
dom, chap, xxviii. 

First strophe — Man has wonderful 
poiver and skill for surmounting the ob- 
stacles of nature and extracting from the 
gloomiest depths of earth her most pre- 
cious treasures, 1-11. 

1. For beauty of thought and rich- 
ness of imagery, Job's eulogium of 
wisdom is worthy to be compared with 
Paul's panegyric of charity. (1 Cor. 
xiii.) Delitzsch calls it "a song of 
triumph without vain-glory." Job is un- 
consciously carving for himself a mon- 
olith with an ineffaceable inscription 
of the two predominant traits of his 
character, the fear of God and the es- 
chewing of evil. (Compare verse 28 
with i, 8.) The deep mysteriousness, 
of the divine procedure in the pwnish- 
ment of the wicked, the main thought 
of the preceding chapter, leads him to 
speak of divine wisdom in general, 
whose ways are unsearchable, and, like 
the field of the miner's toil, buried in 
darkness. The wicked through toil 



at him, and shall hiss him out of his 
place. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

SURELY there is 'a vein for the 
silver, and a place for gold where 



would flee, 1 Or, a mine. 



and danger may, like the miner, acquire 
jewels, precious stones, and great store 
of wealth, but the true and abiding 
treasures are with God, and come from 
God alone. The covetous rich mtm 
treasures up silver and costly vest- 
ments, xxvii, 16, but fails of celestial 
good — the divine wisdom, a " pearl of 
great price ; " and this loss is his pun- 
ishment also — a carrying forward of the 
retributive thought of the preceding 
chapter. Hengstenberg, following Von 
Hofmann, thus traces the connexion : 
"Sin is the destruction of men; the 
wicked man must go to the ground; 
for wisdom, which alone can ward off 
destruction, is to be fouud only in God ; 
the sinner is excluded from this wis- 
dom, and must therefore run into the 
arms of destruction." " The sea of 
life abounds in rocks on which the bark 
must soon split, if so be wisdom sit 
not at the helm."— ii, 181, 172. "In 
the organism of the work this chapter 
is the jewelled clasp that binds the one 
half, the complication of the plot, to the 
other half, its solution." — Delitzsch. 
Surely — For, links the entire chapter 
with the last ten verses of xxvii. The 
transition is abrupt, and is in perfect 
keeping with Job and the Oriental 
mode of thought in general. A vein 
— Literally, outlet for the silver. In 
the most ancient times silver was more 
scarce than gold. Hence throughout 
the Old Testament we find kesep>h, sil- 
ver, used as a term for money. Abra- 
ham bought the field of Ephron for 
" four hundred shekels of silver, cur- 
rent money with the merchant.'" Gen. 
xxiii, 16. The most important silver 
mines of the ancients were in Spain. 
A place for gold — Gold abounded in 
Ethiopia, also in Nubia, as is indicated 
by the word noub, old Egyptian for gold. 
There remains to the present time an 
historical tablet of Rameses II., relating 
to the gold mines of Ethiopia, possi- 
bly the very mines which have been 
recently discovered in the Bisharee 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 



175 



they line it. 2 Iron is taken out of the 
■earth, and brass is molten out of the 
stone. 3 He setteth an end to darkness, 
and searcheth out all perfection: the 



desert, by Linant and Bouorai. Jerome 
speaks of ancient gold mines in Idu- 
maea, Job's home. Where they fine 
— Which they refine. The two different 
words employed by the Hebrew for re- 
fining, ppi, of the text, and tsaraph, point 

to two different processes of refining, 
the one (that of the text) of filtering or 
straining, the other of smelting by fire. 
Both of these Hebrew words for re- 
fining appear in Mai. iii, 3, and are in 
later times probably used interchange- 
ably. The process of refining by fil- 
tering is described at length by Diodo- 
rus, iii, chap. 1. The figure below illus- 
trates the Egyptian mode of smelting. 




2. Iron . . . earth — Iron and brass are 
both alluded to in the final address of 
Moses as abounding in the Promised 
Land. Deut. viii, 9. The Jews do not 
seem to have worked these mines to 
any great extent, though it is now 
known that they were worked by the 
early Canaanitish races. (Rougemoxt, 
IS Age du Bronze, 188.) Iron was cer- 
tainly found in Lebanon, atd Josephus 
speaks of an " iron mountain that runs 
in length as far as Moab." — Wars, 
iv, 8, 2. Pliny (xxxiv, 14) says, mines 
of iron are to be found almost every- 
where. Brass . . . stone — And stone 
is moltm into copper. Brass, as is 
well known, is an alloy of copper and 
zinc. At Punon, between Petra and 
Zoar, were copper mines, to which, dur- 
ing the persecutions of the Roman em- 
perors, many Christians were banished 
that they micrht fall victims to the ex- 



stones of darkness, and the shadow of 
death. 4 The flood breaketh out from the 
inhabitant ; even the waters forgotten of 
the foot: they are dried up, they are 



dust. 



cessive sufferings connected with min- 
ing. The numerous remains of smelt- 
ing furnaces, which may still be seen, 
show that mining operations for copper 
were once carried on upon a very large 
scale in the outlying districts of Sinai, 
near Jebel Habashi. These operations 
probably antedated those of Magharah 
or Sarabit. See Palmer's Desert of the 
Exodus, 234, 256. 

3. He — The miner. An end to 
darkness — The torch of the miner dis- 
pels the darkness of the mine, and 
thus *' he setteth an end to darkness," 
and searcheth out perfectly, (literally, 
to every extremity, to the utmost,) the 
stones o p darkness (metals) and the 
shadow of death. Ancient commen- 
tators thought that Job meant by this 
phrase to designate the centre of the 
earth. Schultens gives sixteen theories 
on this subject. Pliny, whose descrip- 
tion of mining (about A. D. 77) remark- 
ably illustrates that of Job. says : ' ' We 
penetrate the bowels of the earth and 
seek riches in the abode of the dead 
(manes.") — Nat Hist, chap, xxxiii, 21. 

4. The flood — " Cimmerian dark- 
ness," to use the words of Schultens, 
surrounds this verse. The reading 
most accepted at present is, literally, 
He sinketh a shaft away from where men 
dwell : forgotten of the foot, they hang far 
from men, they swing to and fro. The 
flood breaketh — ?nj, which common- 
ly signifies a stream of water, and 
sometimes a valley or gorge, Gen. xxvi, 
17, 19 ; 2 Kings iii, 16, is here used in 
the unusual sense of shaft, and object- 
ively to the verb "breaketh," or "sink- 
eth." They are dried up — It is now 
admitted that the Arabic signification 
of dotal, "hang suspended," is the proper 
moaning of the Hebrew here. Job's 
description of the dizzy and danger- 
ous descent into a mine strikingly 
agrees with that of Pliny, who repre- 
sents the men as "suspended by ropes 
and swinging." even while they cut the 
recks. "The course taken." lie says, 
"is where there is no footing for men." 



176 



JOB. 



gone away from men. 5 As for the 
earth, out of it cometh bread : and under 
it is turned up as it were fire. 6 The 
stones of it are the place of sapphires : 
and it hath 3 dust of gold. 7 There is a 
path which no fowl knoweth, and which 



3 Or, gold ore. 



Pliny thus best interprets forgotten of 
the foot, a phrase which is used like 
chat of the psalmist, "let my right hand 
forget, 1 ' etc., cxxxvii, 5, to express tem- 
porary disabil ty for performing its or- 
dinary offices. 

5. Turned up as it were fire — 
Same also in the Septuagint. Pliny 
has a like thought. Ungrateful man 
repays the debt he owes the earth for 
bread (Psa. civ, 14) by digging out her 
bowels. The miner probably used fire 
in his work of excavation, and thus 
produced effects like those of subter- 
ranean fires. In the days of Pliny 
they broke the rocks with fire and vin- 
egar. Herodotus, (vi, 47,) in his de- 
scription of " the workings in Thasos " 
by the Phoenicians, whose home it will 
be remembered was only about one 
hundred and eighty miles from Idumaea, 
states, " that a huge mountain has been 
turned upside down in the search for 
cres." 

6. Sapphires — The precious stone 
we call the sapphire is generally of a 
sky-blue colour, transparent, and hard- 
er than ruby. The ancients seem to 
have called the lapis lazuli by that 
name. But this was too plentiful, as 
Winer (i, 282) well says, to admit of 
its being accounted one of the precious 
stones of Job. There was discovered 
(A. D. 1859) at the opening of the tomb 
of Amosis, in Thebes, an axe made of 
lapis lazuli. Dust of gold — "Mod- 
ern science, instead of confuting, only 
confirms the aphorism of the patriarch 
Job, who has shadowed forth the down- 
ward persistence of the one, (silver,) 
and the superficial distribution of the 
other, (gold.) Surely there is a vein 
for the silver, the earth hath dust of 
gold." — Sir Roderick Murchison. Hit- 
zig supposes the words of this verse 
to be the reply of the miner, justifying 
his ingratitude by the consideration of 
the sapphires and gold he expects to 
gain out of the earth. 



the vulture's eve hath not seen : 8 The 
lion's whelps nave not trodden it, nor 
the fierce lion passed by it. 9 He put 
teth forth his hand upon the 4 rock ; he 
overturneth the mountains by the roots. 
10 He cutteth out rivers among the 



4 Or Mnt. 



7. There is a path — The path— no 
fowl (rather, bird of prey) hath knoivn 
it, and the vultures eye hath not seen it. 
The vulture — The ayyah, Tristram 
supposes to have been the red kite ; 
others, the vulture. So acute and far- 
seeing is its vision, that the Talmud 
says, " It is in Babylon and seeth a car- 
cass in the land of Israel." The natu- 
ral powers of the brute creation ex- 
cited the astonishment of the ancients, 
even to the extent of adoration. On 
the outer cases of Egyptian mummies 
were painted witli other figures those 
of the hawk or vulture. Mummied 
vultures remain to the present day. 
See Pettigrew's History of Mummies, 
chap. xiv. 

8. Lion's whelps — Literally, sons of 
pridi. Same as in chap, xli, 34. In en- 
larging thus upon the hidden path of 
the mine, that leads to the precious 
treasures of the earth, there is a covert 
allusion to the treasures of wisdom, 
which, in like manner, lie concealed. 

9. Upon the rock — Against the flint, 
(the hardest rock,) as in margin. 
Pliny's words furnish a fitting com- 
ment. "They attack the flint with 
iron wedges and hammers. . . . The 
mountain, fractured, falls off at a great 
distance. . . . The victors gaze upon 
nature's downfall." 

10. Rivers — In the sense of canals 
or water-courses. The fact that the 

word "1N\ here used, is of Egyptian 
origin, (the word aur of the hieroglyph- 
ics, signifying river,) is an indication 
that Job may be describing the Egyp- 
tian mines and mode of mining, perhaps 
those in the Sinaitic districts, either in 
the wady Magharah or that of Sarabit. 
" To wash the ruins," says Pliny, " they 
bring rivers from the tops of moun- 
tains a hundred miles off. They carry 
aqueducts over the valleys, and some- 
times hew a way for those pipes 

THROUGH THE liOCKS." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



177 



rocks ; and his eve seeth every precious 
thing. 1 1 He blndeth the floods 5 from 
overflowing ; and the thing that is hid 
bringeth he forth to light. 12 a But 
where shall wisdom be found ? and where 
wthe place of understanding ? 13 Man 

5 Hebrew, from weeping. a Verse 20; 

Eccles. 7. 24. Z/Prov. 3. 15; 1 Cor. 1. 19, 20; 

2, 6, 15. 



11. From overflowing — From 
weeping, (margin.) A beautiful figure 
to represent the commonplace task of 
the miner, that of binding up the ever 
trickling subterranean rills. Umbreit's 
rather free rendering, he stilleth the 
tears of the streams, is in harmony with 
the poetical conception of the Hebrew 
who looked upon a fountain (ayiri) as 
an eye of nature. 

Second strophe — Application of the 
preceding description to wisdom — a good 
unattainable by any sense of man ; un- 
limited by place it is not to be found in 
Vie world of the living nor in Abaddon, 
the lowest world of the dead; in value it 
far surpasses all conceivable wealth, and 
is therefore infinitely beyond the reach of 
the covetous and extortionate, living or 
dead, 12-22. 

12. Wisdom — HECnn, is a word of 

varied and comprehensive import. It 
includes both intellectual and moral 
qualities ; either, as they exist (con- 
cretely) in the mind of God or other 
moral agent, or as they are brought 
to light (abstractly) either by His ac- 
tion or that of some other being. In 
other words, it may mean either the 
divine idea or archetype according to 
which God works, or high intelligent 
action itself involving upright conduct. 
It also means pure creative Intelligence, 
(hhokmah.) answering to the Logos of 
the Xew Testament. Here Wisdom is 
used with the article, and personified: — 
darkly mysterious, of worth inestima- 
ble, perfect in all its works, infinitely 
to be desired by man ; a Divine Concep- 
tion and yet distinct from God, (verse 
27, ) it may prefigure the incarnate Being 
who is " made unto us wisdom and 
righteousness." Nature, as revealed 
wisdom of God, incomplete and unsatis- 
fying, carries within herself an embry- 
onic prediction that in the fulness of 
time there should be a fuller disclosure 
Vol. V.— 13 



knoweth not the b price thereof; neither 
is it found in the land of the living. 

14 c The depth saith, It is not in me: 
and the sea saith, It is not with me. 

15 6 It d cannot be gotten for gold, neither 
shall silver be weighed for the price 



c Verse 22 ; Rom. 11.33, 34- 
shiill not be given for it.- 
8. 10,11,19; 16. 16. 



Heb. Fine gold 
tfProv. 3. 13-15; 



made of divinely hidden wisdom. The 
boasted Pindar, of the classics, fails in 
his tribute to wisdom when compared 
with Job : — 

" How can'st thou hope true wisdom's to be 

found, 
Wherein so little man surpasses man ? 
For it can never be that minds, 
Of mortal woman born, 
Can trace the counsels of Deity.' 1 

— Fragment x, (Dissen.) 

Compare the apocryphal Book of Wis- 
dom, chapters vii-ix. Understanding 
— nj^B, is rendered by the Germans, 
einsicht, insight. Its root idea, "to di- 
vide," "to separate," is the same as 
that of hhokmah, (wisdom,) and they 
are used interchangeably. The former, 
(binah,) according to Delitzsch, is the 
faculty of seeing through that which is 
distinguishable, consisting of the pos- 
session of the right criteria ; while the 
latter, (hhokmah,) is the perception, in 
general, of things in their true nature 
and their final causes. 

13. The price thereof— The Sep- 
tuagint reads, " w r ay thereof," which 
Dillmann and Hitzig follow on the sup- 
position that it agrees better with the 
context. As wisdom is "the highest 
power in God," so for man it is the 
highest good. Its value is not known, 
for it is above all valuation. 

14. The depth — Uncreated Wisdom 
is subsequently represented as saying, 
(Prov. viii, 24,) "When there were no 
depths" — primordial elements of the 
w r orld — "I w r as brought forth." This 
vast abyss lifts up its voice, " Wisdom 
is not in me I" 

15. Gold — Hebrew, segor. Four 
different w r ords are used for srold in this 
chapter. Gold, " most honoured prize of 
wealth,' 7 (Pindar,) first and last (verses 
15 and 19) in this brilliant array of 
nature's treasures, filled then, as uow r , 
its world-wide place of supremacy. See 
note, however, on verse 1. 

O. T. 



178 



JOB. 



thereof. 16 It cannot be valued with 
the gold of Ophir, with the precious 
onyx, or the sapphire. 17 The gold 
and the crystal cannot equal it: and the 



Or, vessels of fine gold. 



16. Ophir — See note xxii, 24. The 
precious onyx — Canon Cook alludes 
to an Egyptian inscription (in Brugsch) 
which certainly refers to a period be- 
fore Moses, in which distinct mention is 
made of precious stones that had been 
collected by chieftains of the Phoenicians 
in their voyages. Onyx — Hebrew, 
shoham, is supposed by Winer to have 
been the beryl ; and, by equally good 
authorities, to have been the same as 
our onyx. It is a stone or gem in colour 
resembling that of the human finger- 
nail, as denoted by the Greek bvvt;, nail. 
Sapphire — See verse 6. 

17. Crystal — Probably glass. The 
manufacture of glass is of great antiq- 
uity, as is evident from the paintings 
of Beni Hassan, of more than 3,800 
years ago, which still represent the pro- 



exchange of it shall not be for 7 jewels 
of fine gold. 18 No mention shall 
be made of 8 coral, or of pearls : for the 
price of wisdom is above rubies. 19 The 



! Or, Ramoth. 



cess of glass-blowing. The Egyptians 
had the secret of introducing gold be- 
tween layers of glass ; also of working 
Mosaic in glass of so delicate a pattern 
as to have required the use of a magni- 
fying lens. (Wilkinson, P. A., ii, 61.) 
Glass perfectly transparent was es- 
teemed of extremely high value. Nero 
is said, according to Carey, to have 
purchased two glass cups with handles 
for a sum equivalent to 50,000 pounds 
sterling. Jewels — Vessels. 

18. Coral — Ramoth, cognate with 
the Arabic rama, to be blood red. " Prob- 
ably the red coral, which was highly 
prized by the ancients. " — Winer. 
Pearls — Hebrew, Gabish. So uncer- 
tain is the meaning of this word that 
Schultens leaves it untranslated. The 
word means ice, and it is now gener- 




GLASS-BLOWERS. 



ally thought to have been the quartz 
crystal from its being pellucid, like 
ice. Carey renders it motfier-of-pearl 
Price — Possession. Rubies — Peni- 
nim. The meaning is doubtful — prob- 



ably pearls. Thus most recent com- 
mentators. Pearls were in ancient 
times procured from the Persian Gulf, 
whose fisheries were pointed out to 
Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



179 



topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, nei- 
ther shall it be valued with pure gold. 

20 e Whcnce then cometh wisdom ?_ and 
where is the place of understanding ? 

21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all 
living, and kept close from the fowls of 
the 9 air. 22 'Destruction and death say, 



Verse 12. 9 Or, heaven. 

/Verse 14. 



the Great. In the Assyrian ruins Lay- 
ard found a gold ear-ring adorned with 
pearls. (Nineveh, hi, 595.) 

19. Topaz — A most precious gem, 
whose prevailing colour was wine-yel- 
low, passing over into carnation red, 
lilac, or a pale green. Professor Eadie 
states that a single topaz has sold for 
more than a million dollars. See Pliny, 
xxxvii, sec. 32. All Semitic nations 
displayed an absorbing passion for 
jewels and precious stones. Judges 
viii, 24 ; Ezek. xxviii, 13, etc. As with 
the Bang of Tyre, their aspiration was 
to be covered with precious stones. Be- 
fore the imagination, kindled with the 
contemplation of earth's treasures, ce- 
lestial wisdom urges her own incom- 
parable worth. Ethiopia — Hebrew, 
Cash. '• Where the south declines," 
says Herodotus, (in, 114,) "toward the 
setting sun, lies the country called Ethi- 
opia, the last inhabited land in that 
direction." 

20. Whence. . . cometh wisdom — 
Job repeats his question that he may, 
if possible, enforce a reply. The varied 
gems of beauty that adorn this subject 
may have been in the mind of Paul 
when he speaks of "the manifold," 
7roAv7rcn/u/lof,(literally, much variegated,) 
"wisdom of G-od." "Wisdom is pure, 
one in essence, " one in sublime unity 
of truth and purpose ;" transmitted 
through the Church, it becomes " chro- 
matic, so to speak, with the rainbow 
colours of that light which in itself 
is one and undivided." — Alford on 
Eph., hi, 10. 

21. The fowls of the air— To their 
acuteness of vision and wondrous habits 
of migration may be due the widespread 
ascription to them of superior wisdom. 
In all their wide range of flight and 
vision they have never seen Wisdom's 
abode. 

22. We have heard the fame 



We have heard the fame thereof with 
our ears. 23 God g understandeth the 
way thereof, and he knoweth the place 
thereof. 24 For he looketh to the ends 
of the earth, and h seeth under the whole 
heaven ; 25 * To make the weight for 
the winds ; and he weigheth the waters 



tfPsa. 147. 5 ; Luke 10. 21, 22; Acts 15. 18. 
A Pro v. 15. 3. iPsa. 135. 7. 



thereof — The silence of the living sug- 
gests appeal to the dead. ISTew regions 
of being may perchance have opened 
new resources of knowledge. In sub- 
lime figure the poet summons destruc- 
tion (Hebrew, Abaddon, see xxvi, 6) and 
death. All the information they can 
give is hearsay. They have heard a 
vague report. In the gloomy view of 
the ancients, death gave but little in- 
crease of knowledge. H the living know 
not, much less the dead. 

Third strophe — With God is the lofty 
abode of wisdom, as is attested by its dis- 
play in the creation and ordering of the 
world. True wisdom he imparts to man 
through obedience to the divine law and 
through the fear of God — two divinely ap- 
pointed conservators against wickedness 
and the consequent doom of those who prac- 
tice evil, 23-28. " The last of these three 
divisions (of the chapter), into which 
the highest truths are compressed, is for 
emphasis the shortest, in its calmness 
and abrupt ending the most solemn, 
because the thought finds no expres- 
sion that is altogether adequate, float- 
ing in a height that is immeasurable, 
but opening a boundless field for further 
reflection." — Ewald. 

23. Thereof— To it. God (Elohim) 
alone understands the way to wisdom. 
"The way," and "the place there- 
of," as Pareau has well remarked, still 
carry forward the figure of a costly 
treasure deposited in a place inacces- 
sible and concealed from all men. 

25. The weight for the winds — In 
the four representative instances which 
Job adduces out of the great store- 
house of like wonder-workings, wis- 
dom is no more manifested in the ad- 
justment of the weight of the wind, or 
in the distribution of immense masses 
of water by measure, or in the opening 
up of a path for the lightning of the 
thunders, than in the rounding of the 



180 



JOB. 



by measure. 26 When he k made a de- 
cree for the rain, and a way for the light- 
ning of the thunder ; 27 Then did he 
see it, and 10 declare it ; he prepared it, 
yea, and searched it out. 28 And unto 
man he said, Behold, ' the fear of the 

& Chapter 38. 25. 10 Or, number it. 

I Deuteronomy 4. 6; Psalm 111. 10; Proverbs 



small waterdrops that fall gently to the 
earth vivifying its widespread fields. 
It is thought wonderful that Aristotle 
(B. C. 384) should have known of the 
weight and elasticity of the air. The 
weight of a column of air is equal to a 
column of mercury thirty inches high 
— a fact illustrated by the barometer. 
Weigheth the waters by measure — 
The magnitude of the ocean is one of the 
conditions to which the structure of all 
organized beings which are dependeut 
upon climate must be adapted. (Whe- 
WELL, Bridg. Treat, Bohn's edit., p. 45.) 

26. A decree — A law. Thunder 
— Hebrew, Voices. Thunder was the 
voice of God. Psa. xxix, 3. The mani- 
festation of the divine presence was 
frequently attested by thunder. The 
ancient Jews, according to Buxtorf, 
called an oracle of God The daughter oj 
the voice, or thunder. See note, xxxviii, 
25. The book of Proverbs enlarges 
upon the work of divine wisdom in the 
creation of the world. Pro v. viii, 22-31. 

27. Then — At the time of creation, 
He contemplated Wisdom; made her 
known through the medium of her 
works ; established her as governor of 
the world; and searched out her works 
to see whether they might answer their 
high design, or " whether she was ade- 
quate to the task of governing the 
world." — Maurer. Declare it — Nature 
is a perpetual discloser of the mind of 
deity. Rom. i, 20. Prepared — Estab- 
lished. 

28. Unto man — Hebrew, Adam; 
which leads some to suppose that this 
divine precept was delivered to our fore- 
parents before the fall, and that it " con- 
tains perhaps a summary of religious 
knowledge imparted to them." — Lee. 
The Lord — Adhonai. Many manu- 
scripts have Jehovah. That man might 
answer the end of his being — dwelling 
in harmony with God and himself — di- 
vine wisdom encompassed him also with 



Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from 
evil is understanding. 

CHAPTEE XXIX. 

MOEEOVEE Job * continued his 
parable, and said. 



1. 7 ; 9. 10 ; Ecclesiastes 12. 13. 
added to take up. 



1 Hebrew, 



law, no less than the elemental powers 
of nature. This law, like all the works 
of wisdom, was simple and yet perfect 
— the offspring of divine goodness and 
love. " Fear is the mother of fore- 
sight : " spiritual fear, of a foresight 
that comprehends the possibilities of 
life and the reality of eternity. The 
fear of God, in any world of moral 
beings, is a conserving power as essen- 
tial as that which binds the planetary 
system. In man wisdom manifests it- 
self as a moral growth, whose life is 
rooted in the fear of the Lord and the 
departing from evil; in God it is the 
eternal embodiment of perfection with- 
out growth, degrees, or limitations. 
"No one," says St. Ambrose, "can 
know wisdom without God ; " a senti- 
ment which Lord Bacon supplements 
with a lesson which the philosophers 
of the day should heed : " It is an as- 
sured truth, and a conclusion of ex- 
perience, that a little, or superficial 
knowledge, of philosophy may incline 
the mind to Atheism, but a further pro- 
ceeding therein doth bring the mind back 
to religion." — Advancement of Science. 
See also his Essays, xvi. The scholar 
is referred to the exhaustive treatise 
on this chapter by Pareau, entitled, 
"Wisdom better known to the Dead 
than to the Living," and to be found at 
the close of his work De Immortalitatis 
Notitiis, 229-361 ; also Samuel Wes- 
ley's Dissertationes in Librum Jobi, 
xxxiv. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Job's Monologue, xxix-xxxi. 
First Part, chap. xxix. 

1. Some interval may have elapsed 
since the close of the tribute to wis- 
dom, during which fond memory had 
dwelt upon years of prosperity and 
bliss, recalling the care and friendship 
of God, domestic joys, and the highest 
love and veneration of his people. But 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



181 



2 Oh that I were a as in months past, 
as in the days when God preserved me ; 
3 "When his - candle shined upon my 
head, and when by his light I walked 
through darkness ; 4 As I was in the days 



a See chapter 7. 3. b Chapter 18. 6. 2 Or, 

lump, Psa. 18. 28. 



the remembrance of these, instead of 
lighting up the present, according to a j 
strange law of the mind, served rather 
to deepen the gloom. He feels that his 
present wretched condition is but an j 
instance of the mysteriousness of God's j 
ways which he adduces in elucidation 
of the preceding chapter, and thus j 
"continues his parable." Job seeming- I 
ly intimates that he thought his right- ! 
eousness a claim upon God ; and that 
he thence postulated a kind of right to j 
temporal prosperity : which sentiment \ 
would have been in keeping with the ; 
temporal idea of religion prevailing in j 
ancient times — an idea that led to the j 
trial of Job. But now he rises to the j 
mature conception that God's favour 
is in itself a sufficient reward, and 
that this is the greatest of blessings j 
to be desired — an important stage in j 
the transition to the unravelment of j 
the entanglement. While apparently | 
unconscious of the presence of the 
friends, in the kindest and most court- j 
eous spirit he refutes some of their 
cruel charges, and displays the noblest 
traits of character. " The commemora- 
tion of former blessings," says the Ori- 
ental proverb, cited by Ali Hazin, "is 
the possession of the wretched." 

First division — Job's retrospective 

VIEW OP LONG CONTINUED PROSPERITY, 
— A PROSPERITY ARISING FROM COMMUN- 
ION with God and well doing to men, 
chap. xxix. 

First strophe — The most endearing 
fellowship with God was crowned with 
the unstinted bounty of Providence, and 
with tlie profound esteem and affection 
of Job's fellow -men, 2-10. 

2. When God preserved me — 
In all Job's thoughts God is foremost. 
Five times in these few verses (2-5) 
does Job, in diversified expression, re- 
fer to the presence and fellowship of 
God as his highest blessing, and the 
fountain of all good. As the lifting up 
of the heave-offering pointed to God in 



of my youth, when c the secret of God 
was upon my tabernacle ; 5 When the 
Almighty was yet with me, when my 
children were about me; 6 When u l 
washed my steps with butter, and e the 

c Psa. 25. 14. d Gen. 49. 11 ; Deut. 32. 13 ; 33. 24 ; 

chap. 20. 17. e Psa. 81. 16. 

the heavens, so should all human un- 
dertakings begin with him. 

3. When his candle shined — Lit- 
erally, When he, his lamp, shone above 
my head. The glory of a providential 
God, under a figure of marked beau- 
ty, is represented as taking the place 
of the lamp which Orientals are ac- 
customed to suspend, often from the 
ceiling, in every occupied apartment. 
Thus the light shone the live-long night 
upon the heads of those who slept below 
on the floors or divans. (Note, xviii, 6.) 
Eccles. xii, 6 figures existence under the 
image of a golden lamp, (bowl,) sus- 
pended from the ceiling by a silver cord, 
upon the breaking of which life ceases. 
(Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., 269.) The sec- 
ond clause of the verse may contain, 
as Kitto supposes, an allusion to the 
torches or cressets carried aloft in the 
night marches of large caravans. 

4. Youth — Literally, autumn, "the 
days of my maturity," (Gesenius,) that 
period of life in which the fruits of 
earliest labours ripen. The secret of 
God — Hebrew, sodh, same as in xix, 
19 ; a seat, couch, or cushion, upon 
which one reclines, says Kitto ; also a 
circle of friends in consultation. The 
word, according to Hupfield on Psalm 
xxv, 14, is probably derived from an 
Arabic root meaning " secret and con- 
fidential converse." So close and fa- 
miliar was his intercourse with heav- 
en, that Job looked upon God as a 
constant guest and bosom friend; a 
partner in his life, thoughts, joys, and 
griefs, ready to communicate even the 
secret of the divine heart. Comp. Gen. 
xviii, 1 7 ; John xiv, 23. 

5. My children about me — Next 
to the blessing of God's presence was 
that of the children. Compare Psalm 
exxvii, 3 ; exxviii, 3. 

6. When I washed, etc. — Rather, 
when my steps ivere bathed in cream. 
Butter — Milk, probably curdled ; ac- 
cording to others, cream. See note, 



182 



JOB. 



rock poured 3 me out rivers of oil ; 
7 When I went out to the gate through 
the city, when I prepared my seat in 
the street ! 8 The young men saw me, 
and hid themselves : and the aged arose, 
and stood up. 9 The princes retrained 
talking, and f laid their hand on their 
mouth. 10 4 The nobles held their 
peace, and their g tongue cleaved to the 
roof of their mouth. 11 When the ear 

3 Heb. withme. -/Chap. 21. 5. 4 Heb. The 

voice of th e n obles was h id. — o Psa. 137. 6. 

ft Psa. 72. 12; Pro v. 21. 13; 24. 11. 

xx, 17. So plentiful is butter in the 
East, that it is considered at Kerak, 
says Burckhardt, an unpardonable 
meanness to sell butter, or to exchange 
it for any necessary or convenience of 
life. . . . '• Seller of butter " is the most 
insulting epithet that can be applied to 
a man of Kerak. — Syria, p. 385. The 
rock — In ancient times oil-presses,, 
with their floors, gutters, troughs, and 
cisterns, were all hewn out of solid 
rock, and thus it literally poured out 
rivers of oil. — Thomson, Land and Book, 
i, 71. Umbreit understands the ex- 
pression figuratively ; instead of water, 
their usual outflow, the rocks poured 
forth oil. The great lawgiver, when 
about to die, said of Asher, " He shall 
dip his foot in oil," (Deut. xxxiii, 24,) and 
the rabbis say, " In Asher oil flows like 
a river." Me — By or near me. Bless- 
ings were so near and abundant that 
they flowed along his path like a stream. 
7. Through — Up to the city. Cities, 
together with their acropolis, were in 
ancient towns usually built on heights, 
thus securing better defence, and per- 
haps greater probability of health. It 
would seem that Job's residence was 
in the country, and that he made stated 
visits to the city for the transaction of 
business as Emir. The place of busi- 
ness was either in the gateway of the 
city, which was vaulted, shady, and 
cool, (see note, v, 4,) or in the street, 
the broad way, probably a kind of 
market-place, not far from the gate. 
Thomson speaks of his seeing in cer- 
tain places — Joppa, for example — the 
kadi and his court sitting at the en- 
trance of the gate, hearing and adjudi- 
cating all sorts of cases in the audience 
of all that went in and out. 

8. Hid themselves — Evidently 



heard me, then it blessed me : and when 
the eye saw me, it gave witness to me : 
12 Because h I delivered the poor that 
cried, and the fatherless, and him that 
had none to help him. 13 'The bless- 
ing of him that was ready to perish 
came upon me : and I caused the wid- 
ow's heart to sing for ioy. 14 fc I put 
on righteousness, and it clothed me : 
my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. 



iDeut. 24. 13; Acts 9. 39. fcDeut. 24. 13; 

Psalm 132. 9 ; Isa. 59. 17 ; 61. 10 ; Eph. 6. 14, etc. ; 
1 Thess. 5. 8. 



pointing to a primitive and Arcadian 
state of society. Stood up — Remained 
standing. An elegant description, ex- 
hibiting most correctly the great rev- 
erence and respect which were paid, 
even by the old and decrepit, to the 
holy man as he passed along the streets 
or when he sat in public. They not 
only rose, which in men so old and in- 
firm was a great mark of distinction, 
but the} r continued to do it, though 
the attempt was so difficult. — Lowth. 

9. Hand on their mouth — Plu- 
tarch, speaking of a similar gesture, 
calls it a symbol of profound silence. 
See note, chap, xxi, 5. 

10. Tongue cleaved to the roof 
of their mouth — The cleaving of the 
tongue to the palate is an Oriental 
figure for dead silence. 

Second strophe — This prosperity rested 
on the solid oasis of benevolence, philan- 
thropy, and righteousness, which had be- 
came habitual with him, as if incorpo- 
rated into his very nature, 11-17. 

11. It blessed me — His character, 
as a public functionary, not only com- 
manded the reverence of the aged and 
the great, but the esteem and affection 
of all. The friend of G-od is the friend 
of man. 

1 2. A most courteous reply to the 
cruel calumnies of Eliphaz, xxii, 6-9. 

14. And it clothed me-^?, to 
put on, clothe ; the same word in both 
clauses of the sentence. The righteous- 
ness he put on renewed and trans- 
formed his being into its own pure na- 
ture: — It (righteousness) put on me. 
" Job means to say, without and with- 
in was I righteous." — Hahn. The same 
word is used of the Spirit of Jeho- 
vah when he makes man the organ 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



183 



15 I was 'eyes to the blind, and feet " 6 the jaws of the wicked, and • plucked 

the lame. 16 I was a father to the spoil out of his teeth. 18 Then I 

the poor: and '"the cause which I knew said, "I shall die in my nest, and I shall 

not I searched out. 17 And I brake multiply my days as the sand. 19 p My 

/Num. 10. 31. m Proverb? 29. 7. » Psalm teeth, or, the orinrlers. 6 Hebrew, east. 

58. 6; Provems 30. 14. 5 Hebrew, the jaw o Psalm 30. 6. p Chapter 18. 16. 



for the manifestation of his power. 
Judges vi. 34 ; 1 Chron. xii. 18. On 
the other hand, sin is like the burning j 
garment of Nessus — it changes man's 
entire nature into its own miserable 
likeness. Diadem — Tiara or turban. 
This consisted of costly cloths, wound j 
around the head. According to Xie- 
buiir. the head-dress worn by Ara- 
bians of fashion is both inconvenient 
and expensive. "They wear fifteen; 
caps, one over another, some of which ' 
are indeed of linen, but the rest of 
thick cloih or cotton. That which 
covers all the rest is usually richly em- 
broidered with gold, and has always 
some seutence of the Koran embroi- 
dered upon it." See further. Travels, 
ii, 233. Judgment — Integrity is come- 
ly attire for the entire man. Job 
carries forward to a climax the beauti- 
ful figure in the first clause", of clothing 
and adornment for the soul. (Comp. 
Isaiah xi, 5 ; li. 9 ; lix. 17.) Spotless in- 
tegrity was his royal robe, [pJJD, (see 

note, i, 20.) and a diadem or crown 
for his brow. 

16. The Hebrew for father to the 
poor, gives a paranomasia, a beauty 
frequent in Job. just as if we should 
say, a carer for the careful ones. See 
note. iii. 25. Which — Or, of him I 
knew not. He was not indifferent to 
the commonest claims of humanity. 
"With no thought of gain he made the 
stranger his client. 

1 T. I brake the jaws of the wick- 
ed — Gentle and compassionate to the 
oppressed, he was a thunderbolt to the 
oppressor. He broke the jaws of these 
ravenous beasts, and thus crushed their 
power to do injury ; from their very 
teeth he tore their prey. The word for 
jaw may also be rendered eye teeth, 
protruding, says Schultens, like those 
of a wild boar. 

Third strophe — He had reason, there- 
fore, to expect that such prosperity would 
last; that his years would be those of a \ 



patriarch, and that the time would never 
come when the esteem of his fellow-men 
should be abated ; a thought he reverent- 
ly dwells upon, (compare verses 7-10.) 
spurred by the sense of his present degra- 
dation, 18-25. 

18. In my nest — The figure is one 
of peace and security, taken, as Schul- 
tens thinks, from the eagles, who build 
in the highest rocks. Ch. xxxix, 27, 28 ; 
Obadiah 4. As the sand — (See note, 
vi, 3.) The translators of the Septua- 
gint, led, perhaps, by the fact that the 
palm-tree is the hieroglyph for the 
year, and an image of long life, ren- 
der this word, ^in< hhol, "the trunk 
of the palm-tree," see xiv, 7. The rab- 
bins, the Talmud, Dillmann, Zockler, 
(in Lange.) Hitzig, and others, under- 
stand the word to denote the fabled 
bird called the phenix, which, from 
the most ancient times. (Herodotus, 
ii, 73.) has stood as the type of immor- 
tality. Among the fabulous versions 
of its death the one most popularly re- 
ceived is, that the phenix, every five 
hundred years, built a nest of cassia 
and myrrh, in which it burned itself, 
only to reappear with renewed life and 
youth. The Talmud states that Eve 
gave the fruit of the forbidden tree to 
all the animals, and that all of them ate 
save the phenix, an abstinence which 
accounts for its wondrous gift of im- 
mortality. Authorities equally great 
favour the Authorized Version, (sand,) 
among whom are Schultens and G-ese- 
nius ; also Renan. who does not even 
notice the Jewish notion, which Conant 
properly calls a " foolish conceit ;" and 
Cook, (Speaker's Commentary.) who 
scouts the learned etymologies linked 
with the subject. The idea of the 
phenix, Hahn says, owes its existence 
solely to the friendly design on the 
part of Job's commentators to provide 
his nest with a bird. 

19. This and the following verse are 
a continuation of the pleasing thoughts 
and flattering hopes of Job. as expressed 



184 



JOB. 



root was 7 spread out q by the waters, and 
the dew'lay all night upon my branch. 
20 My glory was ° fresh in me, and r my 
bowwas 9 renewed in my hand. 21 Unto 
me men gave ear, and waited, and kept 
silence at my counsel. 22 After my 
words they spake not again; and my 
speech dropped upon them. 23 And 



7 Hebrew, opened. q Psalm 1. 3 ; Jer. 17. 8. 

8 Hebrew, new. 



in ver. 18. The verbs are all future. Thus 
my root shall be open to the luaters, and 
the dew shall lie all night in my branch. 

20. By glory he means honour with 
God and man. The bow, the principal 
weapon of the ancient Egyptians, As- 
syrians, and Hebrews, was a recog- 
nised symbol of strength and dignity. 
Renewed — The same word as in 
ch. xiv, 7 ; " sprout again." The dead 
bow should revive, a figure expressive 
of renewed life and vigour. 

21. Kept silence at my counsel 
— Not unlike " the long silence " that 
followed upon one of the masterly ar- 
guments of Socrates. — Phaedo, lxxvi. ' 

22. Speech dropped — Rain is fre- 
quently used as a metaphor for pleas- 
ing and gentle discourse. " My doc- 
trine shall drop as the rain." (Deut. 
xxxii, 2.) Thus Milton, " Though his 
tongue dropt manna." 

23. The latter rain — Falls in the 
months of March and April, and is 
quite indispensable for the ripening of 
vegetation. 

24. Believed it not — They could 
not believe that he would condescend 
so much as to smile upon them. Ac- 
cording to others, " I smiled upon 
them," to infuse confidence, when 
" they believed not " — were despairing. 
Light of my countenance — A figure 
common to the Scriptures founded upon 
emotional expression through the face. 
Anger darkens, benignity and grace 
light up, the countenance. To cast 
down its light, then, would be to dis- 
turb its serenity, or cause sadness. 

25. I chose out their way — I 
proved their way. Hitzig: Way — The 
Hebrew means, also, "'usage," "con- 
duct," " mode of life," ch. xxiii, 11 ; Psa. 
v, 8; xxvii, 11. Job was a controlling 
power among his people, either to the 
choosing out their way, (Exod.xviii, 20,) 
or to the testing, reproving, and censur- 



they waited for me as for the rain ; and 
they opened their mouth wide as for 8 the 
latter rain. 24 If 'I laughed on them, 
they believed it not ; and the light of my 
countenance they cast not down. 25 I 
chose out their way, and sat chief, and 
dwelt as a king in the army, as one that 
comforteth the mourners. 



r Genesis 49. 24. 9 Hebrew, changed. 

s Zech. 10. 1. 



ing their mode of life ; not actually a 
king, but enjoying all the dignity and 
prerogatives of a prince, even that high- 
est royalty, the solace of_ the sorrow- 
ing, " a reminder for the three who did 
not really, but only in pretence, comfort 
the wretched." — Etoald. 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Job's Monologue, (continued.) 

Second Part, chap. xxx. 

This last lament of Job deepens the 
plot of sorrow, but ripens it for solu- 
tion. That Job should once have been 
honoured by the most honoured of men, 
now imbitters the cup which the most 
despicable press to his lips. Such was 
the systematic and cruel treatment that 
he received from the brutish rabble, 
(Troglodytes,) who lived in waddies and 
holes of the earth, that he compares 
himself to a fortified city besieged and 
carried by storm. God had raised him 
to the sky, and caused him to ride 
on the wind as in a chariot, that he 
might hurl him deeper into the abyss. 
It is to be remarked that though his 
cry of despair had failed to move God 
or man, (verse 20 and 28,) he calmly 
holds fast to his integrity and faith, and 
awaits the final stroke. Somewhat 
similar extreme and sudden reverses of 
fortune are still frequent in the East. 
Layard, in his Nineveh, (vol. i, 49,) de- 
scribes the fate of Mohammed Pasha, 
who was suddenly ejected from the 
governorship of Mosul. A dragoman 
found him in a dilapidated chamber, 
into which the rain penetrated with- 
out hinderance. "Thus it is," said he, 
" with God's creatures. Yesterday these 
dogs \oere kissing my feet; to-day, every 
one and everything falls on me — even 
the rain." 

This monologue is divided into four 
strophes, the last three of which com- 
mence with the same particle, nfijfi, 



CHAPTER XXX. 



185 



CHAPTER XXX. 

BUT now they that are x younger than 
J have me ill derision, whose fathers 
1 would have disdained to lure set with 
the dogs of my flock. 2 Yea, whereto 
might the strength of their hands profit 
ine, in whom old age was perished ? 
3 For want and famine they were 2 sol- 
itary ; fleeing into the wilderness 3 in 
1 Heb. of fewer days than 1.- 



former time desolate and waste : 4 Who 
cut up mallows by the bushes, and juni- 
per roots for their meat. 5 They were 
driven forth from among men, (they cried 
after them as after a thief,) 6 To dwell 
in the clefts of the valleys, in 4 caves of 
the earth, and in the rocks. 7 Among 
the bushes they brayed ; under the net- 
tles they were gathered together. 8 They 
! Or, dark as the night. — 3 Heb. venter night. — 1 Heb. hole*. 



and now, (verses 1, 9, 16,) one of the 
evidences of strophic arrangement of 
the book. 

Second division — The pitiable con- 
trast OF THE PRESENT — JOB'S WRETCH- 
EDNESS SET FORTH IN A FINAL LAMEN- 
TATION, chap. xxx. 

First strophe — Formerly a prince 
among nobles, Job is now grossly maltreat- 
ed by hordes of pariahs, whose mode of life 
links them with beasts rather than with 
men, 1-8. 

1. The dogs — Tn the East the dog 
serves as a symbol for every kind of 
uncleanuess, (Rev. xxii, 15,) and is uni- 
versally abhorred. The scoffers Job 
speaks of were not fit to associate with 
dogs. Mohammed says, " Angels will 
enter no house where are dogs and 
pictures." In his annals, Sardanapalus 
speaks of a captive king, " With the 
dogs I placed him, and I caused him to 
be chained." — Column viii, 29. 

2. Old age — Equivalent to manly 
vigour, the maturity of strength. These 
wretches are so eaten out by vice, or 
worn away by want and wretchedness, 
that all hope of old age has perished. 

3. Solitary — Similar to iii, 7, (which 
see;) barren, emaciated, hard like the 
rock. Fleeing into — Literally, gnawing 
the wilderness. The scantness of their 
livelihood appears from ver. 4. Former 
time — The prime import of this word, 
£*OX, is darkness, or yesternight, as in 

margin ; others insist upon "the yester- 
day of waste and desolation." The lan- 
guage denotes extreme desolation. 

4. Mallows — Probably the sea 
pursiaiu or orach, a kind of bramble 
without thorns, of an exceedingly bit- 
ter and saltish taste, whence the He- 
brew name, like our word salad, from 
sal, salt. Athemeus speaks of the 
poor of bis day as "'eating purslain, 
and gathering such like bad things." 



Juniper — Hebrew, rothem, is a broom 
shrub, common in the desert of Syria, 
and grows to the height of eight or ten 
feet, furnishing a shade, though slight, 
yet eagerly sought for by the traveller. 
It was under this plant Elijah took 
shelter. Its roots are so bitter as to 
be eaten only by the extremely poor. 

5. Driven forth from among men 
— If they dared to show themselves 
among men they were hooted back to 
their own bestial homes. 

6. Clefts of the valleys — Literally, 
Horror of the gorges. Dwelling in valleys, 
Umbreit says, is in the East a mark of 
poverty and wretchedness. Oaves — 
Ehorim, as in the margin, holes of the 
earth, whence the word Horites, those 
who dwell in holes and caves — the abo- 
rigines of Idumaea. (Deut. ii, 12, 22.) See 
note xxiv, 2. The treatment that they 
and their ancestors bad received at the 
hand of their conquerors led them to im- 
prove every opportunity of revenge, as is 
evident, from their persecution of Job, 
whom misfortune had thrown into their 
power. Then, too, fallen human nature 
takes pleasure in maltreating those who 
have fallen from a higher plane to that 
of a lower one. Wolves devour a wolf 
when no longer capable of self-defence. 

7. Brayed — Their inarticulate notes 
sounded like those of the ass. xxiv, 5. 
Herodotus (iv, 183) compares the lan- 
guage of the Troglodyte Ethiopian to 
the screech of the night-owl. The bray 
which Job deftly imputes to this hu- 
man rabble tells the genus to which, in 
his estimate, they belong. Nettles — 
Denoted probably some kind of thistle 
or thorn, (Rosenmuller;) according to 
others, some species of wild mustard. 
They were gathered together — The 
Arabic seems to justify Tayler Lewis 
(compare Gesenius, Thes., s.v.) in ren- 
dering ^HQD^ herd together like beasts. 



186 



JOB. 



were children of fools, yea, children of 
5 base men: they were viler than the 
earth. 9 a And now am I their song, 

Jrea, I am their byword. 10 They ab- 
lor me, they flee far from me, 6 and spare 
not b to spit in my face. 11 Because he 
c hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, 
they have also let loose the bridle before 
me. 12 Upon my right hand rise the 



5 Hebrew, men of no name. a Chap. 17. 6 ; 

Psalm 35. 15 ; 69. 12 ; Lam. 3. 14, 63. 6 hebrew, 

and withhold not spittle from my face. 

In illustration of meaning, consult He- 
rodotus i, 216, and Larcher's "Notes 
on Herodotus," vol. i, page 196. 

8. They were viler than the earth 
— Rather, They are beaten out of the land. 
Our aborigines furnish a parallel case. 

Second strophe — These human out- 
casts are led on to such brutal usage of 
Job by the treatment he had received at 
the hands of God, who had himself set the 
example, by letting loose his horde of ca- 
lamities against his servant, 9-15. 

9. Their song (of derision) — See 
xvii, 6. Nothing can give us of the West 
an idea of the shocking and indecent 
scurrilities Orientals put into their satir- 
ical, or, rather, abusive songs. (Kitto.) 

10. Spit in my face — Num. xii, 14; 
Deut. xxv, 9 ; see also Job xvii, 6. Some 
improperly understand the grossly in- 
sulting act in this case to have been 
before, not into, the face. In the East, 
however, spitting in the presence of 
another is regarded as an outrage 
nearly as great as to spit upon him. 

11. Loosed my cord — My girdle, 
(Fiirst;) bowstring, (Dillmarm ;) the well- 
known symbol of power, or, as in iv, 21, 
the cord, (Delitzsch,) like that of a tent 
that keeps the soul in the body. In 
either view GTod had humbled him. He 
forbears to mention Deity by name. 
They also have cast off the bridle ; that 
is, all restraint, perhaps all sense of 
shame. The antithe -is is obvious. 

12. Right hand — The place of van- 
tage. This was the position of the ac- 
cuser in court. (Zech. hi, 1.) Evil has 
the vantage ground here : in heaven, 
Christ standeth at the right hand of 
God. The youth — An expression of 
contempt — "offspring of beasts," (Ge- 
senius,) "brats." Against me the 
ways — As in ch. xix, 12, he compares 
himself to a place besieged, a favourite 



youth; they push away my feet, and 
d they raise up against me the ways of 
their destruction. 13 They mar my 
path, they set forward my calamity, they 
have no helper. 14 They came upon 
me as a wide breaking in of waters : in 
the desolation they rolled themselves 
upon me. 15 Terrors are turned upon 
me : they pursue 7 my soul as the wind : 



o Num 12. 14 ; Deut. 25. 9 ; Isa. 50. 6 ; Matt. 26. 67 ; 

27. 30. cSee chapter 12. 18. rfChap. 19. 12. 

7 Hebrew, my principal one. 



figure of Job, and one which he ex- 
pands in the following two verses. 

13. They mar my path — In the 
process of the siege they break up his 
paths, that is, the paths that lead to 
him; they "set forward his calamity," 
— make his destruction more certain. 
They have no helper — This ambigu- 
ous expression is probably a proverbial 
one for " the friendless " and " the help- 
less." "They are too vile to have an 
ally." Schultens gives several illustra- 
tions of such Oriental use : for in- 
stance, " We behold you ignoble, poor, 
without a helper among the rest of 
men." Zockler's interpretation, " they 
need no other help," and that of Hit- 
zig, " they do it without gain to them- 
selves," are sufficiently self-condemned. 

14. A wide breaking in — A wide 
breach. See "breach upon breach," 
xvi, 14. By a figure common in the 
Scriptures, (like that of " cup " for its 
contents,) breach stands for the inrush • 
ing soldiers. In the desolation — Lit- 
erally, Beneath the crash they roll on. (De- 
litzsch.) A vivid description of the 
storming of a fortress : the walls crash 
as the infuriated soldiery rush through 
the breach. Hitzig agrees witli the 
English version except in the second 
clause, which he renders "like a plung- 
ing stream they roll on." 

15. My soul — Literally, My honour. 
Gen. xlix, 6. In recognition of the 
soul as the nobler part of man. As a 
cloud — Arabian writers frequently 
compare hopes and promises that are 
not fulfilled to a cloud full of promise, 
speedily dispersed by the wind. 

Third strophe — In his extreme distress 
Job cries in vain to a God ivho casts him 
into the mire and coldly stares upon him, 
or lifts him up upon the stormy wind that 
he may dissolve him in the crash of the 



CHAPTER XXX. 



187 



and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. 
16 e And now my soul is poured out 
upon me; the days of affliction have 
taken hold upon me. 17 My bones are 
pierced in cue in the night season : and 
my sinews take no rest. 18 By the 
great force of my disease is my garment 
changed: it bindeth me about as the 
collar of my coat. 19 He hath cast me 
into the mire, and I am become like dust 
and ashes. 20 I cry unto thee, and 

e Psalm 42. 4. 8 Hebrew, turned to be cruel. 

9Heb. the strength of thy hand. 



storm, and thus make more conspicuous 
and startling the divine determination to 
destroy. 16-23. Compare xxix, 2-5. 

16. Poured out upon me — We say 
of the heart, " it dissolves in grief," an 
effect of grief recognised in other lan- 
guages. 

17. My bones are pierced — Ac- 
cording to many, night is here personi- 
fied, thus : The night pierces my bones. 
Night intensifies pain and sorrow. Job 
attributes to night, as an agent, the 
work done in the night. See note iii, 3. 
Herder calls Job the brother of Ossian 
in personification. In me — Literally, 
From upon me. So that they (the bones) 
are detached from him. It is possible 
that Job was already maimed by this 
"maiming disease." Sec note ii, 7, and 
below verse 30. Sinews — Same as 
in verse 3, gnawers, that is, the gnaw- 
ing disease or gnawing pains ; possibly 
worms, the maggots in his ulcers, vii, 5. 

18. Garment changed — Figura- 
tively, for skin which by "great (di- 
vine) power " is marred, disfigured so 
that he could scarcely be recognized ; 
" the whole body being enveloped with 
a kind of elephantine hide formed by 
innumerable incrustations from the 
ulcerated surface." — Clarke. Of a mad- 
man a Persian poet says, He was clothed 
as with a rest, with the wounds of ulcera- 
tion. (Sir W. Jones, i, 221.) Coat— 
Tunic; a closely fitting undergarment 
resembling in form and use a shirt, and 
made either of wool, cotton, or linen. 

19. As in ix, 31. Like dust and 
ashes — In elephantiasis the skin is at 
first intensely red. and afterward black. 

20. Hear — Rather, answer. Regard- 
est me (omit not) — Job takes the rever- 
ential attitude of a suppliant, and God 
looks upon him calmly and pitilessly. 



thou dost not hear me : I stand up, and 
thou regardest me not. 21 Thou art 
8 become cruel to me: with "thy strong 
hand thou opposest thyself against me. 
22 Thou liftest me up to the wind ; thou 
causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest 
my 10 substance. 23 For I know that 
thou wilt bring me to death, and to the 
house Appointed for all living. 24 How- 
beit he will not stretch out his hand to 
the « grave, though they cry in his de- 

10 Or, wisdom. — -f Hebrew, 9. 27. 11 He- 
brew, heap. 



21. Harsh and unjustifiable charges 
against God, which Elihu justly re- 
proves, xxxfii, 10. 

22. The wind ; thou causest me 
to ride upon — This figure is common 
in Oriental writers. "In Arabic they 
say of one who hurries rapidly by that 
he rides upon the wings of the wind." — 
Delitzsch. Comp. Psa.cii,10. Dissolvest 
my substance — Rather, according to 
the Kethib, Dissolvest me in the tempest; 
more literally, the crash of a tempest. 

23. Appointed — lyiD, according to 

Dr. Clarke and most moderns, means 
assembly; herewith belli, the house of as- 
sembly, the involuntary rendezvous of all 
of woman born. Comp. chap, iii, 18, 19. 
The idea of a gathering of the dead " to 
the fathers," or "to their people," ap- 
pears frequently in the oldest of the 
Scriptures. Note on xxvii, 19. "All such 
language must have come from some 
idea of death, or sheol, being a place of 
waiting for something to come after it." 
— T. Lewis. See Excursus III, page 73. 
Fourth strophe — God's insensibility 
to JoVs prayers may have arisen from 
the general principle that prayers can be 
of no avail when once the doom of de- 
struction shall have gone forth. The sym- 
pathy Job had ever extended to those in 
distress led him to expect divine succour, 
but in vain, since naught noiv remains to 
him but lamentation and death. 24-31. 

24. Howbeit— "-jX, yea. Schultens 

enumerates eighteen interpretations of 
this difficult verse. Those most worthy 
of consideration turn upon the meaning 
of ^3) which, if taken as one word, sig- 
nifies prayer; if compounded, it means 
to the grave or in destruction. Geseni- 
us, (Thes., ii, 22,) Rosenmiiller, (Conant, 



183 



JOB. 



struction. 25 E Did not I weep 12 for 
him that was in trouble ? was not my 
soul grieved for the poor? 26 h When 
1 looked for good, then evil came unto 
me : and when I waited for light, there 
came darkness. 27 My bowels boiled, 



g Psa. 35. 13, 14 ; Rom. 12. 15. — 12 Heb.forhim 

that was hard of day. h Jer. 8. 15. i Psa. 

38. 6; 42. 9; 43. 2. 



Penan, Lewis, etc., render, essentially, 
yea, there is no prayer when he (God) 
stretches out the hand ; when he (God) de- 
stroys, vain is the cry for help. Literally, 
it reads. "If in his destruction (that of 
which God is author) one cries," what 
then ? of what avail ? which is, says 
Dr. T. Lewis, an aposiopesis, (like that 
of Luke xiii, 9, if it bear fruit ! ! or 
the quos ego ! ! of Virgil,) a figure com- 
mon to passionate language, in which 
the speaker leaves the hearer to supply 
a conclusion which he him self is loath to 
express. Com p. Psa. xciv, 9 ; Iliad, i, 26. 
Renan renders it, " of what use to pro- 
test against his blows." If instead of 

taking, with Jerome and Kimchi, \Tp, 

as euphonical for a masculine plural, it 
be read adverbially " on this account," 
(Furst,) the sense is not materially 
changed. The noun )N&1 cry, corre- 
sponds to the »TI of xxiv, 12, " The 

soul of the wounded crieth out." On 
the other hand, in view of the context, 
Ewald, Hirtzel, Dillmaun, etc., translate 
less correctly, yet in destruction doth one 
not stretch out the hand ? In his calam- 
ity doth he not complain thereof? Dr. 
Clarke gives no translation, but seems 
disposed to follow Bede and most of 
the Latins in regarding it as " a con- 
solatory reflection, as if he had said, 
though I suffer here, I shall not suffer 
hereafter ... his displeasure shall not 
proceed beyond the grave." 

25. Him that was in trouble — 
Literally, the hard of clay. Job seems 
to intimate that the sympathizer with 
men has reason to expect divine sym- 
pathy. Psalm xli, 1-3. And yet the sym- 
pathy he has freely poured forth for 
others is withheld from him by God 
and man. Like Jeremiah and our Sav- 
iour, Job was preeminent in sympathy. 
The touching pathos of this appeal 
must commend itself to each heart. 



and rested not: the days of affliction 
prevented me. 28 ' I went mourning 
without the sun : 1 stood up, and I cried 
in the congregation. 29 k 1 am a brother 
to dragons, and a companion to 13 owls. 
30 'My skin is black upon me, and m my 



k Psalm 102. 6 ; Micah 1. 8. 13 Or, ostriches. 

1 Psalm 119. 83 ; Lamentations 4. 8 ; 5. 10. 

m Psalm 102. 3. 



27. Bowels — According to the Ori- 
ental ideas, the seat of deep and noble 
feelings and emotions. Barnes thinks 
Job means "the upper bowels, or the 
region of the heart and the lungs." In 
Isa. xvi, 11, deep feeling for others calls 
forth from within responsive notes, like 
those of the harp touched by the plec- 
trum. South- Sea Islanders " call com- 
passion a bleating of the bowels." — 
Forster. Prevented — Have overtaken. 

28. Mourning without the sun — 
I go blackened, bid not by the heat of the 
sun. The blackness of his skin is due, 
not to the sun, but to his disease. 
Elephantiasis passes current as "the 
black leprosy." Congregation — Prob- 
ably the indiscriminate assemblage of 
the people, naturally drawn together 
at first by the tidings of his misfor- 
tunes. This seems to have been pre- 
vious to the seven days of mourn- 
ing ; the utter breaking down of Job 
is painfully indicated by this cry of 
despair. 

29. Brother — See note, xvii, 14. By 
his cry he has become a brother to 
dragons, (Hebrew, tannim,) rather, 
jackals, whose howl is a wailing like 
that of a child. It begins with the set- 
ting of the sun and continues all night. 
Dr. Thomson speaks of a concert of 
jackals as the most frightful noise he 
ever heard. {Land and Book, i, 133.) 
Owls — Literally, daughters of the ostrich. 
The cry of the ostrich is hideous, some- 
times resembling the roar of a lion ; 
then again, the hoarse voice of the 
bull. " I have often heard them groan 
as if they were in the greatest ago- 
nies." — Dr. Shaw, (comp. Micah i, 8.) 
Shakspeare borrows the imagery of 

this verse, 

though I go alone, 
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen 
Makes feared. — Coriolanus, iv, sc. 1. 

30. Upon me — Literally, from upon 
me. Job now describes an advanced 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



189 



bones are burned with heat. 31 My 
harp also is turned to mourning, and my 
organ into the voice of them that weep. 



stage of the elephantiasis, in which the 
skin peels and hangs down in black 
flakes, and the limbs perish and fall off, 
the bones having been destroyed by the 
ulceration. Verse 17. 

31. Harp ... to mourning — See note, 
xxi, 12. Among the Hindus, when a per- 
son is in trouble, his instrument is also 
considered to be in trouble, (Roberts.) 

Thus closes the second part of the 
soliloquy, (monologue,) Job's last sor- 
rowful lament. " What a delicate touch 
of the poet is it that he makes this 
lament die away so melodiously ! One 
hears the prolonged vibration of its el- 
egiac strains. The festive and joyous 
music is hushed ; the only tones are 
tones of sadness and lament, mesto fle- 
bile. ' ' — Delitzsch. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Job's Monologue, (continued.) 
Third Part, chap. xxxi. 

In " this masterly piece of moral 
painting " we have a most pleasing 
view of a gentle and amiable spirit 
ennobled by the one common love of 
God and man. At the first sight, 
this review of Job's life seems a Phar- 
isaical display of virtue, a quasi invoice 
of righteousness ; but it is to be remem- 
bered that Job has been forced to 
a defence under circumstances which 
Sir Richard Steele states "may justify 
a man in saying not only as much as 
will refute his adversaries, but if he 
can, he may assert things of himself 
praiseworthy, which ought not to be 
called vanity in him, but simply justice 
as against his opponents." 

We have, moreover, an insight into 
the patriarchal religion, the most an- 
cient religion of our race. The religion 
of Job was not of Israel, nor from 
Moses, but Abrahamic, the din Ibrahim, 
(religion of Abraham,) as the Arab calls 
it even to the present day. There is a 
striking resemblance between this ex- 
hibit of moral duty and the ten com- 
mandments of piety peculiar to the din 
Ibrahim. (See Delitzsch, ii, 173.) There 
is displayed a most remarkable insight 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

I MADE a covenant with mine a eyes ; 
why then should I think upon a 
o 728. 

into the motives and springs of moral 
action, — the rudiments of good and evil. 
The heart he regards as the fount of 
moral action — the field from which man 
may look the saint but be the devil. 

Job anticipates, to a wonderful de- 
gree, various elements of "the sermon 
on the mount," more especially the re- 
sponsibility connected with the subtle 
beginnings of action, the unseen pri- 
mordia of the outward deed. And yet 
it is worthy of special consideration 
that " a conscience so wonderfully del- 
icate and enlightened as that which 
Job had disclosed in these his closing 
discourses, appears as in need of repent- 
ance, and unable to secure from God a 
verdict of unconditional justification." 
— Zockler. 

Third division — Job's asseveration 

OF HIS INNOCENCE, UNDER THE MOST 

solemn appeals to God, chapter XXXL 

First strophe, 1-8. 

a. A preliminary declaration that he 
had prescribed terms to the most treach- 
erous of the senses, and planted a guard 
over his entire being, and that, too, im- 
pelled by the highest considerations of re- 
gard for God, 1-4. 

1. With mine eyes — The eyes, says 
a Talmudic proverb, are " the procur- 
esses of evil." So intimately is this 
most delicate and precious of the senses 
related to the soul, that Pliny said of 
the mind, " it certainly dwells in the 
eyes." Here the eye is singled out as a 
representative sense, as if he who had 
the mastery of this were lord of all. Job 
has " made a covenant " to (?) or for his 
eyes — prescribed limitations with all 
the form and solemnity of a covenant, 
which, through the divine strength of 
grace, he has determined they shall not 
transgress. Why then should I 
think — How then should I look, or gaze, 
look wistfully upon, fJisnK. Thus 

translated, there is a striking resem- 
blance in this question to the saying of 
Christ, (Matt. v. 28.) At a time when 
polygamy or some other form of concu- 
binage almost universally prevailed, Job 



190 



JOB. 



maid? 2 For what b portion of God is 
there from above? and what inheritance 
of the Almighty from on high ? 3 is 
not destruction" to the wicked? and a 
strange punishment to the workers of 



b Chap. 20. 29 ; 27. 13.— 
34. 21 ; Prov. 5. 21 ; 15. 3 ; 



-e2Chron. 16.9; chap. 
Jer. 32. 19. 



stands conspicuously forth as a high- 
toned moralist, who looked upon chas- 
tity of the heart as no less important 
than chastity of the life. 

2. What portion of God — In the 
sense of retribution. These questions 
are answered by the questions of verses 
three and four. 

3. A strange punishment — "DJ- 

The word bears a similar meaning in 
the Arabic. Thus Mohammed : " He 
shall visit him with a strange, (nulcran,) 
or awful, penalty." The punishment of 
such " workers of iniquity " is strange, 
extraordinary. The diseases and the 
remorse that spring from a life of licen- 
tiousness are markedly exceptional, and 
argue peculiar punishment in the next 
life. 

b. Job's first protestation is, that he has 
not practiced deceit, nor acted on dishon- 
est principles, nor departed from the way 
of chastity, (as indicated in verse 1,) a 
specification which prepares the way for 
the next protestation, 5-8. 



iniquity ? 4 c Doth not he see my ways, 
and count all my steps? 5 If I have 
walked with vanity, or if my foot hath 
hasted to deceit ; 6 1 Let me be weighed 
in an even balance, that God may know 



1 Hebrew, Let him weigh one in balances 
of justice. 

5. If — The usual form of oaths. See 
note onxxvii, 2, 4, and 5. He means to 
attest his innocence under the most 
solemn sanctions. Vanity — The prime 
meaning of the Hebrew is, falsity. A 
sad companionship is that of a false, 
hollow, hypocritical nature; such every 
corrupt man must " walk with." 

6. Let me be weighed, etc. — Lit- 
erally, let him weigh me in a balance of 
righteousness, and God shall know mine 
integrity. Balance — See note, vi, 2. 
According to the Egyptian mythology, 
when the soul appears before Osiris it 
is weighed in a balance. A series of 
questions (amounting to as many as 
forty-two) are proposed, of the most 
severe and searching character, which 
"illustrate the nature of that secret and 
self-judging law which everywhere, in 
spite of intellectual aberrations, is still 
active in the cause of truth and right- 
eousness, among the inmost fibres of 
the human heart." — Hard wick. (See 
his work, " Christ," etc., ii, 301-303 ; 
also Bib. Sac, xxv, 91-103.) 




In this picture, taken from Cham- 
pollion, the good deeds of an entire 
life, supposed to have been deposited 



in a vase, are being weighed in the one 
scale ; while an ostrich feather, the em- 
blem of truth or justice, serves as a 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



191 



mine integrity. 7 If my step hath turned 
out of the way, and d mine heart walked 
after mine eyes, and if any blot hath 
cleaved to mine hands ; 8 Then e let 
me sow, and let another eat ; yea, let my 
offspring be rooted out. 9 If mine heart 
have been deceived by a woman, or if I 
have laid wait at my neighbour's door; 
10 Then let my wife grind unto f an- 
other, and let others bow down upon 



(/See Num. 15. 39; Eccles. 11. 9: Ezek. 6. 9; 
Matt. 5. 29. eLev. 2ti. 16; Deut. 28. 30, 38, &c. 



weight in the other. A report of the 
issue is in process of reading to Osiris, 
before whom sits the dog Cerberus, the 
keeper of the gates of the invisible 
world. The trial has evidently gone 
against the dead man, who is being 
ferried back to earth in the form of a 
hog under the guidance of a monkey. 

7. The way — Used figuratively for 
the law of God. Mine heart — 2? 

here, as in many other places, denotes 
the will or active reason, rather than the 
mere feeliug. It is what Socrates calls 
the reversal, or turning upside down, or 
wrong end foremost, of human nature, 
indicating a dire catastrophe ; the reason 
following the sense, and submitting to 
the sense instead of controlling it. 
(Tayler Lewis.) Mine eyes — As in 
verse 1. Blot — See the gloss of Elihu 
upon Job's self-righteousness, xxxiii, 9. 

8. Let me sow, etc. — A proverbial 
phrase. See John iv, 37. Offspring 
— Produce of the land. 

Second strophe — Job affirms that he 
has practised righteousness in all the re- 
lationships of domestic life ; and at the 
same time protests, first, with contempt 
and detestation, that he had never been be- 
fooled by a woman, and thus led away in- 
to adultery ; and again, that he had never 
despised the cause of his servant, whose 
rights were co-equal with his own in the 
sight of God, 9-15. 

9. Deceived — Enticed or befooled. 
At the root of the Hebrew lies the idea 
of simplicity. Compare ver. 27; Prov. 
vii, 7 ; ix, 4. He now declares himself 
guiltless of adultery, as he had before 
of fornication, (verse I.) 

10. Grind — Burckhardt, speaking of 
the people of Medina, says, " The women 
of the cultivators and of the inhabit- 
ants of the suburbs serve in the fami- 



her. 1 1 For this is a heinous crime ; 
yea, e it is an iniquity to be punished by 
the judges. 12 For it is a fire that con- 
suraetlTto destruction, and would root 
out all mine increase. 13 If I did de- 
spise the cause of my manservant or of 
my maidservant, when they contend- 
ed with me ; 14 What then shall I 
do when h God riseth up? and when 
he visiteth, what shall I answer him ? 



/2 Sam. 12. 11; Jer.8.10.- 
20. 10 ; Deut. 22. 22 ; see vers 



'Gen. 38. 24; Lev. 
h Psa. 44. 21. 



lies of the towns-people as domestics, 
principally to grind corn in the hand- 
mills.'''' — Arabia, ii, 265. The oldest 
versions understand the word to ex- 
press a deeper degradation, in illus- 
tration of which Dr. Clarke gives an 
excursus. The second clause -is ex- 
plained by xxiv, 15. 

11. A heinous crime — Hftt, the 

usual Thorah word for the shameless, 
subtle encroachments of sensual de- 
sires. (Delitzsch.) The various stages 
of meaning through which this word 
has passed — first, of thought or intent ; 
second, of (supposed) cunning; third, 
of lewdness, (of the mind ;) fourth, of 
heinous deed, Lev. xviii, 17, (adultery, 
incest,) — paint in brief the descent and 
degradation of vice. 

12. Destruction — Heb. Abaddon. 
See on xxvi, 6. It is a fire that ceases 
not to burn till it has taken hold of hell 
itself. (Prov. vii, 27.) "It drags him 
whom it has seized down with it into 
the deepest depth of ruin, and as it were 
melts him away." — Delitzsch. See Caryl, 
in loc. In the earliest ages adultery was 
punished by burning. Gen. xxxviii, 24. 

13. The cause of my manserv- 
ant — The importance of the subject is 
indicated by the form of oath, if, now 
for the fourth time introduced. His 
servants were regarded not as chat- 
tels, but as human beings. True nobil- 
ity of character is as truly displayed in 
the proper treatment of dependents as 
in any of the so-called higher relation- 
ships of life. 

14. Riseth up — To judgment : such 
is the divine indignation at the contem- 
plation of man's cruelty to man. Ste- 
phen in the hour of martyrdom saw the 
Son of man standing on the right hand 
of God. 



192 



JOB. 



15 'Did not he that made me in the 
womb make him? and 2 did not one 
fashion us in the womb? 16 If I have 
withheld the poor from their desire, or 
have caused the eyes of the widow to 
fail ; 1 7 Or have eaten my morsel my- 
self alone, and the fatherless hath not 
eaten thereof ; 1 8 (For from my youth 
he was brought up with me, as with a 
father, and I have guided 3 her from my 
mother's womb;) 19 If I have seen 
any perish for want of clothing, or any 

Eoor without covering ; 20 If his loins 
ave not k blessed me, and if he were 



i Chap. 34. 19 ; Prov. 14. 31 ; 22. 2 ; Mai. 2. 10. 

2 Or, did he not fashion us in one womb? 

3 That is, the icidow. &Deut. 24. 13. 

ZChap. 22. 9. 4 Or, the channel bone. 



15. Did not one fashion us — 

" There is," said Seneca, " the same be- 
ginning, the same origin, for all ; no 
one is more noble than another." — De 
Benef , iii, 28. Nature, as she contem- 
plates her two great estates, life and 
death, man's entrance into and his 
departure from life, has many a moral 
for man, such as humility, forbear- 
ance, charity, and brotherly love. The 
charter of human rights rests upon our 
oneness in nature, and our equality be- 
fore the One who made us — God. 

Third strophe — In civil life, also, Job 
declares he had practised righteousness 
towards the dependent, and shown mercy 
to the suffering and defenceless. — The en- 
tire strophe contemplates the false charges 
Eiiphaz had m.ade upon this very point, 
(xxii, 6-9,) and is enforced by a threefold 
appeal to God, and an imprecation that 
if he speak not the truth great bodily 
harm may come upon him, 16-23. 

18. He— The fatherless. Her— The 
widow. 

20. The loins, previously naked, are 
personified and poetically described as 
invoking upon him every blessing. 

21 . Help in the gate — Patrons and 
friends, ready to defend him in case of 
maladministration of justice. The gate 
is the forum in Eastern towns, where all 
kinds of important business are trans- 
acted. See note, xxix, 1. 

22. Mine arm — There is a striking 
grandeur in this imprecation on the 
arm that was lifted up to threaten an 
orphan in the court of justice. (Scott.) 

23. Destruction. . .a terror — It 
was not unworthy of Job to confess 



not warmed with the fleece of my sheep ; 
21 If I have lifted up my hand ' against 
the fatherless, when I saw my help in 
the gate : 22 Then let mine arm fall 
from my shoulder blade, and mine arm. 
be broken from 4 the bone. 23 For 
m destruction from God was a terror to 
me, and by reason of his highness I 
could not endure. 24 n IfI have made 
gold my hope, or have said to the fine 
gold, Thou art my confidence ; 25 ° If 
I rejoiced because my wealth was great, 
and because mine hand had 5 gotten 
much ; 26 p If I beheld 6 the sun when 



m. Isaiah 13. 6 ; Joel 1. 15. n Mark 10. 24 ; 

1 Tim. 6. 17. o Psalm 62. 10 ; Prov. 11. 28. 

5 Hebrew, found much. -p Deut. 4. 19 ; 11. 16 ; 

17. 3 ; Kzek. 8. 16. 6 Hebrew, the light. 



that the fear of God — even of destruc- 
tion "from the presence of the Lord" 
(2 Thess. i, 9) — was the mainspring of 
his moral life. Religious life may have 
its roots in the wintry soil of fear, but 
it matures and ripens under the sum- 
mer sun of divine love. 

Fourth strophe — Job declares himself 
to have discharged his more secret and pri- 
vate obligations to God and man. He was 
not only free from covetous extortion, as 
he had previously declared, (verse 21,) 
but also from avaricious idolatry of glit- 
tering wealth and a concealed adoration 
of the most conspicuous of the heavenly 
bodies. Nor had he cherished emotions of 
retaliation and revenge, nor neglected the 
rites of hospitality, nor in general laid claim 
to virtues which he possessed not, 24-34. 

Dillmann and others make the fourth 
strophe end with verse 32 ; Hengsten- 
berg continues it to verse 34, and calls 
it a new decalogue of trespasses with 
an appended curse. The strophe di- 
vides itself into halves — the first, treat- 
ing of sin directly against God ; the 
second, of sin against man. 

24. Gold my hope — Job here links 
the love of the shining metals with the 
worship of the shining luminaries — cov- 
ert idolatry with overt idolatry — and 
thus anticipates the apostle in his esti- 
mate of covetousness. Col. iii, 5. " They- 
whose God is gold have not God." Dr. 
Chalmers has a sermon (in loc, 24-28) 
on " The Love of Money." 

26. The sun. . .the moon — Traces 
of the worship of these bodies are found 
in the most ancient heathen religions. 
2 Kings xvii, 16; xxi, 3 ; Psa. xix. "The 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



193 



it shined, or the moon walking 7 in 



7 Hebrew, 



first generation of men in Egypt," says 
Diodorus Siculus, (book i, chapter 1,) 
" contemplating the beauty of the su- 
perior world, and admiring with as- 
tonishment the frame and order of the 
universe, supposed that there were two 
chief gods that were eternal, that is to 
say, the sun and the moon, the first of 
which they called Osiris and the other 
Isis, both names having proper etymol- 
ogies : for Osiris, in the Greek language, 
signifies a thing with many eyes, which 
may be very properly applied to the 
sun, darting his rays into every corner, 
and, as it were, with so many eyes 
viewing and surveying the whole land 
and sea ; with which agrees the poet — 
The sun from his lofty sphere all sees and hears. 

. . . They hold that these gods govern 
the whole world, cherishing and in- 
creasing all things." See also Plu- 
tarch's Treatise Concerning Isis and 
Osiris, section lii. The Persians (B. C. 
about 523) conquered Egypt, and re- 
placed, as far as lay in their power, 
the sculptural representations made by 
the Egyptians of their divinity Ra, (the 
sun,) by representations of their own 
divinity, of which the following figure 
is an illustration. 




brightness ; 27 And my heart hath 



bright. 



The sun in this is distinguished from 
the sun of the Egyptians by the absence 
of wings or asps, and more particularly 
by the want of the human figure or 
statue of the god, and by its sending 
forth a number of rays, each ending 
with a human hand. The ancient Egyp- 
tians worshipped the sun under the title 
of not only Ra or Re, but of Amnn Ra, 
"the hidden" sun. The Papyri furnish 
extensive and important invocations 
and hymns to Ra and Amun Ra, illus- 
trations of which may be seen in The 
Records of the Past, ii, 117-136. The 
Nabataeans (commonly regarded as 
Arabs) worshipped the sun at " an altar 
constructed on the top of a house, pour- 
ing out libations and burning frankin- 
cense up on it everyday." — Strabo, xvi, 
c. iv, section 26. "The astral charac- 
ter of the old Arabian idolatry," says 
Rawlinson, "is indubitable." (See his 
Herodotus, ii, p. 336.) In Egyptian hier- 

Iff 

oglyphics the idea of prayer was repre- 
sented by a man holding up his hands 
accompanied by a star. The ancient 
Assyrians subordinated the worship of 
the sun (Shamas) to that of 
(Sin) the moon-god. (Raw- 
linson ; S Anc. Hon., ii, 16, 
17.) That the rising sun 
was also worshipped in 
Syria is affirmed by Taci- 
tus, (Hist., iii, 21.) Such 
worship spread all over 
the world, and lasted in 
England even to the times 
of Canute, who, according to Dupuis, 
prescribed the form of worship to be 
rendered to the sun, etc. Evidences of 
this idolatry still linger in the names of 
the first two days of the week, Sun-day, 
Mou or Moon-day. Walking in bright- 
O. T. 




194 



JOB. 



been secretly enticed, or 8 my mouth 
hath kissed ray hand : 28 This also 
were q an iniquity to be punished by the 
judge : for I should have denied the God 
that is above. 29 r If I rejoiced at the 
destruction of him that hated me, or 
lifted up myself when evil found him ; 
30 s Neither have I suffered 9 my mouth 
to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. 



8 Hebrew, my hand hath kissed my mouth, 

g Verse 11. rProv. 17. 5. sMatt. 5. 44: 

Romans 12. 14. 9 Hebrew, my palate. 

£ Genesis 19. 2, 3; Judges 19. 20, 21; Romans 



ness — Job dwells upon the dazzling 
beauty and great glory of these heaven- 
ly bodies as though they might be the 
sources of a subtle power to entice the 
affections of mortals. The Arabs have 
a proverb, " Take care of looking at the 
splendour of the stars." Most forms 
of ancient idolatry — certainly the wor- 
ship cf the powers of nature — drifted 
into the grossest licentiousness, which 
may have been the chief reason that, 
in the days of Job, it was " punished 
by the judges." 

27. Mouth. . .kissed. . .hand — Lit- 
erally, My hand hath hissed my mouth, 
as in the margin. " In the act of wor- 
ship," says Pliny, we "kiss the right 
hand, and turn the whole body to the 
right," xxviii, 2, 5; also xi, 45, 103. 
Worshippers of the rising sun in West- 
ern Asia and Greece, according to Lu- 
cian, also kissed the hand to this lumi- 
nary, " and then thought their adora- 
tion complete." The act was expres- 
sive of affection for these objects. 

28. Denied the God above — The 
transfer of the predominant affection of 
the heart from the Creator to the crea- 
ture is a practical denial of God. 

29. Rejoiced at the destruction, 
etc. — Rejoicing in the sufferings of 
others is a most hateful form of evil. 
(See note on xv, 21.) In Job's bitterest 
invectives there is no trace of hate. 
Here he speaks of him who hated me, 
Noble as Job appears in such a light, 
Christ demands more than this nega- 
tive moral action, even the love of an 
enemy; "a voice," sa} r s Lord Bacon, 
" beyond the light of nature." Comp. 
Exod. xxiii, 4, 5 ; Lev. xix, 18 ; Deut. 
xxiii, 7 ; Pro v. xx, 22 ; xxiv, 17 ; xxv, 
21, 22 ; and Cicero, Be Officiis, 1, xxv. 

30. Wishing a curse to his soul — 



31 If the men of my tabernacle said 
not, Oh that we had of his flesh ! we 
cannot be satisfied. 32 l The stranger 
did not lodge in the street : but I opened 
my doors " to the traveller. 33 If I 
covered my transgressions « u as Adam, 
by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom : 
34 Did 1 fear a great T multitude, or did 
the contempt of families terrify me, that 



12. 13; Hebrews 13. 2; 1 Peter 4. 9. 10 Or, to 

the way. 11 Or, after the manner of men. 

u Genesis 3. 8, 12; Proverbs 28. 13; Hosea6. 7. 

v Exodus 23. 2. 

Rather, demanding his life with a curse. 
See note, iii, 8. Job denies that he has 
by any imprecation sought to enlist 
deity against his enemy. Tacitus, 
speaking of the interference of Piso 
with the offering of sacrifices for the 
recovery of Germanicus from danger- 
ous illness, says, " Even the victims al- 
ready at the altar were driven away, 
and the apparatus for sacrifice over- 
turned," etc. — Annals, ii, 69. Compare 
1 Kings iii, 11. 

31. Oh that we had, etc.— Rather, 
Who can shoiu any one not satisfied with 
his meat. His hospitality was such that 
the men of his tent, who had the best 
opportunities to know, could not point 
out any one who had not been fed at 
his table. Flesh is used for slaugh- 
tered food, as in 1 Sam. xxv, 11. 

32. To the traveller— Literally, to 
the way. The Mishna has a precept, 
" Let thy house be open to the way, 
and may the poor be thy guests." 
Christ was crucified near to the ivay. 
" Certainly the place of his execution 
was upon a frequented way." (Meyer 
on Matt, xxvii, 39.) His heart is open 
for all wayfaring, sorrowing ones. 

33. As Adam — Hosea vi, 7. Many 
expositors translate as in the margin ; 
but others, Samuel Wesley, {Diss, in 
Jobum, xiv,) Schultens, (in loc.,) and 
Hitzig, satisfactorily defend the read- 
ing, "as Adam." The following verse 
furnishes, as the point of comparison, 
the sinner's dread of the fight— a uni- 
versal fact of our fallen nature, for 
which fallen Adam will ever stand as 
the prototype. Gen. iii, 8-11. There 
is no reason for supposing that Job was 
ignorant of " the fall." 

34. Did I fear, etc. — Because I feared 
the great multitude, and the contempt of 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



195 



I kept silence, and went not out of the 
door ? 35 w Oh that one would hear me ! 
12 behold, my desire is, *that the Al- 
mighty would answer me, and that mine 
adversary had written a book. 36 Sure- 



s t' Chap. 33. 6. 12 Or, behold, my sign is that 

families terrified me, so that I kept si- 
lence, and went not out of the door. He 
affirms with renewed solemnity (with 
the if as before) that he has covered 
no transgression (verse 33) because 
he feared the stigma of the families, 
and the consequent loss of reputation. 
(Verse 34.) Had he been such a secret 
sinner as the friends represented him 
to be, he would rather have slunk 
away from society. Brentius cites the 
case of Demosthenes, who feared to 
enter the popular assembly lest he 
should be accused of corruption, and 
alleged as an excuse for his silence 
and absence that he had the quinsy, 
when, so his enemies said, he had the 
silver-quinsy. — Plutarch, Demos., xxv. 

Fifth strophe — The statement he has 
made, Job would dare to sign in the 
presence of God, and carry about as a 
triumphant declaration that he has not 
been guilty of deceit and hypocrisy. Nor, 
in conclusion, has he been guilty of the 
certain nameless sin which his friends 
had cowardly insinuated, but dared not 
mention. See note, xiii, 23. 

In view of the infliction of a like curse 
upon Adam because of his sin, (compare 
verses 40 and 33 with Gen. iii, 17, 18,) 
the final imprecation of a curse upon the 
ground, his widespread domain, which 
loos his only remaining wealth, forms a 
pre-eminent climax to JoVs defence, and 
more especially to this series of impreca- 
tions, 35-40. 

35. The most probable reading is, 
Oh that I had one who would hear 
me ! Behold my signature ! Let the Al- 
mighty answer me. My desire — ^p\, 

toxi: literally, my sign, (tav,) as in the 
margin. Compare Ezek. ix, 4. In the 
opinion of some this mark was cruci- 
form, as in the Phoenician letter Taw, 
*f(, which, being the last of the letters, 
served as the signature of the alpha- 
bet. Job now declares that he is 
ready to sign all the protestations he 
has just made. The ancient Egyptian 



ly I would take it upon my shoulder, 
and bind it as a crown to me. 37 I 
would declare unto him the number 
of my steps ; as a prince would I go 
near unto him. 38 If my land cry 

the Almighty will answer me. — ccChap. 13. 22. 



courts required the accused to sign his 
reply. Mine adversary, etc. — Some 
read, " Oh that I had the charge mine 
adversary had written ! " Comp. chap, 
xix, 23. Job speaks of God, who he as- 
sumes has " written bitter things against 
him," xiii, 26. Job has made his state- 
ment ; conscious of his innocence, he 
would now see the divine statement. 
"With the ancient Egyptian it was nec- 
essary that the charge of the accuser 
should be a written one, and read in 
open court. If it were not that Job, 
like all human beings, was frail and sin- 
ful, this challenge of God to judgment, 
with wr ich he crowns his defence, would 
partake of the morally sublime. " Bold- 
er words than these Job had not ut- 
tered in the whole dispute. These pro- 
voked Elihu to renew the debate ; aud 
these are the expressions for which the 
Almighty chiefly reprimanded him." — 
Afichaelis on Lowth. Book — See note 
on xix, 23. 

36. Surely — If. God do so and 
more to me if I would not display it as 
a visible badge of honour ; for Job was 
sure that his life contained nothing 
grossly criminal. "Wilkinson tells us 
that the ancient Egyptian is sometimes 
represented after death as wearing 
round his neck the same vase which in 
the scales typified his good actions, or 
bearing on his head the ostrich feather 
of truth. They were both intended to 
show that he had been deemed worthy 
of admission to the mansions of the just. 
— The Ancient Egyptians, P. A., ii, 383. 
Crown — Literally, crowns. The word 
differs from that of xxix, 14. The plural, 
niipy, is either the plural of excellence, 

or is used descriptively of diadems aris- 
ing each out of the other. Rev. xix, 1 2. 

37. Near unto him — In the hour 
of fancied triumph he regards as his 
highest honour that of drawing near 
unto God. 

38-39. Some, without good ground, 
have thought that these verses are 



196 



JOB. 



against me, or that the furrows like- 
wise thereof 1S complain ; 39 If y I have 
eaten 14 the fruits thereof without mon- 
ey, or * have 15 caused the owners there- 



13 Hebrew, weep. y James 5. 4 ; Lev. 19. 13 ; 

Jer. 22. 13 ; Mai. 3. 5; chap. 24. 10, 11. 14Heb. 

the strength thereof. z\ Kings 21. 19. 



misplaced, and that they should have 
appeared before in the list of affirma- 
tions; according to Eichhorn, after 
verse 25 ; and Stuhlmann, after ver. 34. 
Such criticism, forgetful that nature 
loves irregularities of landscape, would 
reduce all to the same dead level. The 
perfection of this defence is secured by 
this last solemn asseveration. Seem- 
ingly an after-consideration, it looks 
boldly in the face the most serious 
of all the charges, the unnamed some- 
thing which the friends have darkly 
hinted, — for instance, Bildad, in chap, 
viii ; Zophar in chaps, xi and xx ; and 
Eliphaz in chap. xxii. Comp. xiii, 23. 

38. Complain — Weep. The rab- 
binical proverb embodies a similar fig- 
ure, " The altar of G-od weeps over him 
who separates himself from the wife 
of his youth." Comp. Hab. ii, 11. 

39. To lose their life — Literally, 
breathe out their life. The idea seems 
to be, not of direct murder, but of 
"harassing to death " (thus Maurer) 
the rightful owners, in order that their 
lands might be secured. 

40. Thistles — Translated elsewhere 
thorns. Cockle — The Hebrew root 
points to some kind of noxious, ill- 
smelling weed. The word is also the 
last in the Hebrew text, and forms a 
surprising climax to the discourse, and 
possibly an unsavory reflection on the 
friends. Among the calamities Sen- 
nacherib declares himself to have en- 
tailed upon a conquered race was the 
sowing of thistles over their corn fields. 
Inscription 30. The words of Job 
are ended — The poetical accents with 
which this sentence is marked express 
the very ancient opinion that these 
closing words are the w r ords of Job. 
Hitzig, however, regards them as "a 
boundary set up by the revisers of Job ! " 
A boundary stone they may be, but, by 
whomsoever set up, they serve to mark 
the line between Job's darkness and 
despair on the one side, and the rich 



of to lose their life : 40 Let a thistles 
grow instead of wheat, and 16 cockle in- 
stead of barley. The words of Job are 
ended. 



15 Hebrew, caused the soul of the owners 

thereof to expire, or, breathe out. a Gen, 

3. 18. 16 Or, Jioisome weeds. 



dawning light of a divine solution on 
the other, first through Elihu, God's 
servant, and then from God himself. 
"All words," observes Hengstenberg, 
"spoken against G-od come, after a 
brief season, to an end, either of grace, 
as in Job's case, who begs that the 
folly of his discourses may be forgiven, 
or of wrath, when the mouth that ut- 
tereth great things is closed with vio- 
lence." 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
EXCURSUS No. VI.-ELIHU. 

A new interlocutor now enters upon 
the scene. He is a young man of high 
descent, (D"), ram, high,) probably of 
the lineage of Abraham, and has thus 
far stood modestly in the background 
among the silent auditory. He is un« 
mentioned in the prologue, and alto- 
gether unheralded, except by " the 
kindled wrath" of which the sacred 
writer four times speaks in xxxii, 2-5. 
That wrath has been kindled by the mis- 
erable fiasco "the friends" have made, 
and by displeasure at the self -righteous- 
ness with which, as Elihu conceives, Job 
has plumed himself. He speaks only 
because he can no longer hold his emo- 
tions in check, and because he believes 
that he is inspired to announce prin- 
ciples of the divine government which 
Job and his friends have both ignored. 
" He represents, as it were, the better 
/ of Job, for he knows how to say ef- 
fectively to Job all that it is necessary 
and wholesome for him to know con- 
cerning the causes of his sorrows." — 
Andrea. 

As to the discourses of Elihu it is 
difficult to account for the wide diver- 
sity of opinion they have called forth. 
On the one side stand the Jewish rab- 
bis, who regarded him as a prophet of 
the Gentile world; Chrysostom, who 
represented him " as a witness to true 
wisdom both as respects his speeches 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



197 



and his silence ; " Hengstenberg, who 
entitles him " God's spokesman/' and 
his discourses " the throbbing heart " 
of the whole poem ; and Bishop Words- 
worth, who calls Elihu " the St. Stephen 
of the patriarchal Church." See note on 
xxxv. 15. On the other hand, the Ven- 
erable Bede identifies Elihu with the 
false prophet Balaam ; Halm calls him 
" a most conceited and arrogant young 
man ; " Delitsch (in Hertzog) charges that 
his speeches are filled with " manufac- 
tured pathos ; " while Herder and Eich- 
horn see in him but an empty babbler. 
Similarly depreciating views have led 
some of the leading German exegetes to 
regard the Elihu section as an interpola- 
tion. Ewald goes so far as to detach and 
place it at the end of the work ; not- 
withstanding he inconsistently admits 
that " the thoughts in this speech are 
in themselves exceedingly pure and 
true, conceived with greater depth, and 
presented with more force, than in the 
rest of the book;" which he proceeds 
to account for by the advanced stage 
of the debate when Elihu appeared. 
On the contrary, Schlottmann (JEinl, 
p. 55) and Stickel (228-232) have dis- 
played consummate skill in tracing out 
the intimate relations this section sus- 
tains to the rest of the work ; in gather- 
ing together the incomplete thoughts of 
the preceding speakers, which And their 
end and solution only in Elihu ; and in 
showing that this whole section dove- 
tails with the rest of the book accord- 
ing to the workmanship of a god rather 
than that of a man. See note, xxxiv, 9. 
It proves to be like the ltervous S3 r stem, 
which not only finds a place in the body, 
but is so interwoven with it as to be in- 
separable. The plane from which Elihu 
speaks is more elevated than that of 
Job and his co-disputants ; his view of 
the moral government of God is more 
consistent and comprehensive ; and the 
key to the mystery of suffering which 
he holds tits more of the dark and in- 
tricate wards of evil. This advanced 
knowledge — "these doctrines more skil- 
fully combined" — leads Renan to say 
that they "appear to be more modern 
than those of the other interlocutors;" 
while he oddly enough adds, "but it 
would be difficult to say whether ages 



were necessary to produce this trans- 
formation," (p. 57 ;) an admission which 
quite offsets the disparaging views con- 
cerning Elihu which he had previously 
expressed. 

The office Elihu tills in the poem, 
structurally considered, is that of pre- 
paring the way for the coming of Je- 
hovah. He is a quasi John the Bap- 
tist — a divinely commissioned bearer 
of truth — whose voice dies not away 
until the coming of Him who is greater 
than he. God reasons at large with 
man, through man: an Elihu is a ne- 
cessity in the divine plan — at least so 
far as its features have been disclosed 
to us. Dr. Walter Hodges (1750) went 
so far as to suppose that Elihu was a 
type of Christ in his human nature. 
When God himself shall appear and 
speak, he will speak like a God. In 
response to the repeated demands of Job 
that God should judge his cause, God 
will finally appear as judge, and if he 
speak, speak in the character of judge. 
Job's appeals virtually criminate the 
Judge. The pious heart is startled by 
the boldness and vain-glory of his final 
summons of God. (xxxi, 35-37.) Job's 
whole being, to use one of his own fig- 
ures, (vii, 12,) is like the sea or its mon- 
sters, which unceasingly chafe beneath 
the divine will. In order that the char- 
acter and function of the Judge may 
stand above even a conceivable im- 
peachment, it is necessary that an ad- 
vocate should intervene between the 
disputants, filling the part of an Elihu. 
Ere the God speak in adjudication, the 
reason of Job must be convinced; "the 
Titan must first be made puny in his 
own eyes," and reduced to silence by 
probing his self-righteousness to the 
quick, and showing him that the true 
seat and source of his woes lies, not in 
God but in himself, and that the purifi- 
cation and exaltation of man's being is 
the ulterior and loving end of the divine 
chastisement. The addresses of Elihu 
remove the stain of aspersion cast upon 
the divine nature, and open the way 
for a wise and righteous adjustment 
of the case at issue. The lacuna which 
would follow upon the excision of an 
Elihu from the scheme of the poem 
would be most palpable, and irreparable 



198 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

SO these three men ceased 1 to answer 
Job, because he was a righteous in 
his own eyes. 2 Then was kindled the 



1 Hob. from answering. a Chap 33. 9. 



by other than a divine hand. " To de- 
ny the genuineness of the speeches of 
Elihu," says Hengstenberg, " is equiv- 
alent to plucking out the eyes of the 
book." "With the excision of Elihu, 
the poem would, indeed, prove a torso 
mutilated at the heart rather than at 
the extremities. 



The Unravelment: 

Chaps, xxxii-xlii. 

The four speeches op Elihu — The 
first part of the positive solu- 
TION of the problem. Chapters 
xxxii-xxxvii. 

Introduction in Prose accounting for 
the intervention of Elihu, xxxii, l-6a. 

The sacred writer proceeds to apolo- 
gize for the intervention of Elihu, and 
more especially for the imperfections 
of his first address ; not only for the 
impetuosity and conceit which it be- 
tokened, but for its painful embarrass- 
ment and the obvious inadequacy of its 
exordium — the former of which were 
unbecoming a young man, and the lat- 
ter of which should seemingly have led 
him to keep his silence. (See note on 
verse 6.) The introduction, however, 
quietly assures us in advance of the 
noble character of the speaker and of 
the fitness of his speech, notwithstand- 
ing adverse appearances ; and prepares 
us to coincide with the estimate of 
Lowth: "The lenity and moderation 
of Elihu serve as a beautiful contrast 
to the intemperance and asperity of the 
other three. He is pious, mild, and 
equitable; equally free from adulation 
and severity; and endued with singular 
wisdom, which he attributes entirely to 
the inspiration of God ; and his mod- 
esty, moderation, and wisdom are the 
more entitled to commendation when 
we consider his unripe youth. As the 
characters of his detractors were in 
all respects calculated to inflame the 
mind of Job, that of this arbitrator is 
admirably adapted to soothe and com- 
pose it. To this point the whole drift 



wrath of Elihu the son of Baraehel b the 
Buzite, of the kindred of Earn : against 
Job was his wrath kindled, because 
he justified 2 himself rather than God. 



b Gen. 22. 21. 2 Hebrew, his soul. 



of the argument tends, and on this the 
very purport of it seems to depend." — 
Hebrew Poetry, sec. xxxiv. 

1. Righteous in his own eyes — 
The friends had failed to convince him 
of unrighteousness. On the contrary, 
in arraigning the Tightness of the di- 
vine government, they conceived his 
object to be the establishment of his 
own righteousness. Seemingly about 
to retire from the field and leave Job 
to his vanity and obduracy, the friends 
console themselves, and excuse their 
pitiable defeat, by the solace that Job 
is '•• righteous in his own eyes." The 
author apparently makes the remark iu 
the interest of "the friends," notwith- 
standing Hengstenberg's view that lie 
speaks in his own person. The words 
are significant in their bearing upon 
the solution of the problem of the book. 

2. Elihu — My God is he, (Geseni- 
us.) This name, together with that of 
his father, Baraehel, " May God bless," 
points to a religious line of descent, per- 
haps through Nahor, the brother of 
Abraham. Gen. xxii, 21. The Buzite 
— Huz and Buz, the names of two sons 
of JSTahor, Abraham's brother, thus re- 
appear, the one in the name of Job's 
country, and the other in that of the 
tribe to which Elihu belonged. " The 
circumstance of his belonging to the 
family of Buz was thus pointedly men- 
tioned by the Sacred writer to draw re- 
spectful attention to him, notwithstand- 
ing his youth, on account of his rela- 
tionship to Abraham." (Kitto, D. B. I.) 
Genealogical wastes like that of Genesis 
xxii, 21 are made to blossom, as one part 
of the Scripture thus interweaves itself 
with another. Kindred of Ram — 
Ewald and others think the word Bam 
ma} r be interchangeable with the Aram 
mentioned in Genesis in connexion with 
Huz and Buz. Gen. xxii, 21. This may 
sufficiently account for the Aramaic 
forms of speech with which the language 
of Elihu is marked, and nullify all objec- 
tions urged against Elihu on the ground 
of his Aramaisms. Rather than God 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



199 



3 Also against his three friends was his 
wrath kindled, because they had found 
no answer, and yet had condemned Job. 

4 Now Elihu had 3 waited till Job had 
spoken, because they were 4 elder than 
he. 5 When Elihu saw that there was 
no Answer in the mouth of these three 
men, then his wrath was kindled. 



3 Heb. expected Job in word.?. 4 Heb. 

elder for days. 5 Heb. few of days. 

cChap. 15. 10. 6 Heb. feared. 



— The same comparison as in chapter 
iv, 17, on which see note. 

3. Condemned Job — The only way 
they could justify dod's ways was to 
condemn Job. 

4. Waited till Job had spoken — 
Elihu had modestly stood in the back- 
ground and ''awaited Job with words." 
Kitto {Pictorial Bible) tells us, that "at 
the present time, in Arabia, every one 
that pleases attends whenever a dis- 
cussion is in progress. It is not cour- 
teous for any one to interpose until the 
original parties in the dispute have ex- 
hausted themselves: then any have a 
right to declare their views of the sub- 
ject." This custom may account for the 
fact that no other notice is taken of 
Elihu either before or after his speeches. 

Elihu's First Address. 

Chap, xxxii. 6b — xxxiii, 33. 

Preamble setting forth at length 
the reasons which led him, a 

YOUNG MAN, TO SPEAK. XXxii, 6&- 

xxxiii, 7. 

First section. — Elihu makes an apolo- 
getic and conciliatory address to all the 
disputants, in which he recognises the 
fact that superior knowledge is to be ex- 
pected from those of advanced years ; but 
he is not unmindful that the highest wis- 
dom is the direct gift of the divine Spirit 
rather than the necessary endowment of 
old age. Yerse 66-10. 

6. I am young — That a young man 
should speak before such an assem- 
blage would, with an Arabian, be an 
unpardonable presumption, or, as Scott 
calls it, " an astonishing phenomenon." 
The prejudice of the Arab against 
youth resembled that of our own In- 
dians. The repetitions of Elihu in his 
introductory remarks are due to his ex- 
treme embarrassment. I "was afraid — 
The prime idea of the Hebrew is to 



6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the 
Buzite answered and said, I am 5 young, 
c and ye are very old; wherefore I was 
afraid," and 6 durst not show you mine 
opinion. 7 I said, Days should speak, 
and multitude of years should teach wis- 
dom. 8 But there is a spirit in man : 
and d the inspiration of the Almighty 



d\ Kings 3. 12; 4. 29; chapter 35. 11; 38. 3ti; 
Proverbs 2. 6; Eccles. 2. 26; Daniel 1. 17; 2. 21 ; 
Matt. 11. 25; James 1. 5. 

creep, thence "creep along fearfully," 
(Furst ;) or, "He drew near with a fear- 
ful step," (Gesenius.) Mine opinion — 
"•JH, My knowledge. The frequent use 

of this ex-cathedra word is in harmony 
with the superhuman plane from which 
Elihu proposes to speak. Vs. 10, 17 ; 
chap, xxxiii, 3 ; xxxvi, 3, 4. 

7. Days should speak — See Ser- 
mon by Paley, in loc, on "The Ad- 
vantages of Old Age." 

8. But there is a spirit in man — 
Literally, But the Spirit, it is in mortal 
man ; or, fcOH rn"l, the Spirit itself is, etc. 
The parallel, " inspiration of the Al- 
mighty," requires us to understand by 
the " spirit in man," the divine Spirit. 
The Hebrew regarded all physical and 
spiritual power as a divine inspiration. 
The word rendered man- is enosh, mor- 
tal or decaying man. See note iv, 17. 
Frail and perishable man has a capac- 
ity for God : the vessel may be fragile,. 
{earthen, 2 Cor. iv, 7,) yet it may be not 
only the residence of the divine Spirit, 
but the medium through which it may 
act. Through faith in God Elihu is 
emboldened to speak upon a subject 
that has overtasked his superiors. The 
divine Spirit honoured his confidence by 
making him (St. Augustine says) "as 
superior in wisdom as he was in mod- 
esty." The inspiration of the Al- 
mighty — v n$ fl*?^.j same as »i 

chap, xxxiii, 4, where it is rendered 
" the breath of the Almighty," which 
in both cases agrees with the Vulgate ; 
while. the Septuagiut, in like manner, 
gives for each, nvorj, breath. The same 
Hebrew is used in Genesis ii, 7 for 
breath of life, which leads Mercerus 
unhesitatingly to say that Elihu alludes 
to the first creation of man, when God 
breathed into man the breath of life. 
See note xxxiii, 4 ; also a sermon by 



200 



JOB. 



giveth them understanding. 9 e Great 
men are not always wise : neither do the 
aged understand judgment. 10 There- 
fore I said, Hearken to me ; I also will 
show mine opinion. 1 1 Behold, I wait- 
ed for your words ; I gave ear to your 
'reasons, whilst ye searched out 8 what 
to say. 12 Yea, I attended unto you, 
and, behold, there was none of you that 
convinced Job, or that answered his 
words: 13 f Lest ye should say, We 



el Cor. 1. 26. 7Heb. understandings. 

8 Heb. words. — -fJer. 9. 23 ; 1 Cor. 1. 29. 9 Or, 



Dr. Bushnell, in loc, on " The Spirit in 
Man," and Eaton's Bampton Lecture, 
(1872.) 

9. Great men are not. . .wise — 

Literally, not the great are wise, that is, 
(according to the Septuagint,) ''the 
great in years." Old age does not neces- 
sarily imply wisdom. 

10. Show mine opinion — The orig- 
inal will bear a more modest rendering, 
/ will declare my knowledge, even I. 

Second section. — Directly and ex- 
clusively addressing the three friends, 
for the first and last time, (save in the 
incidental allusion of xxxv, 4.) Elihu 
declares his surprise and indignation at 
their failure to answer Job, and shows 
that this was due to their dealing in 
personal invective as the ground of his 
refutation rather than in the impartial 
and inoffensive principles of right and 
reason, 11-14. 

] 3. We have found out wisdom — 
Lest, in case the friends had succeed- 
ed they should triumph over their vic- 
tory, God reserves to himself the glory 
of refuting Job : He alone (through 
Elihu) "can thrust him down." The 
secret of their failure was their inor- 
dinate vanity, (xii, 2.) On this account 
God would not empioy them as his in- 
struments. According to Hengsten- 
berg, Elihu " gives the reason for freely 
reminding the friends of their insuffi- 
ciency. He would free them from their 
illusion." " Their want of success bears 
witness against themselves, and proves 
nothing against the possibility that a 
fresh disputant may conquer Job." — 
Hitzig. Zockler and Dillmann err in 
their interpretation : " We have come 
upon such superior wisdom in Job that 
only God can drive him out of the field ;" 
thus attributing to the friends not only 



have found out wisdom : God thrusteth 
him down, not man. 14 Now he hath 
not 9 directed Ms words against me : 
neither will I answer him with your 
speeches. 15 They were amazed, they 
answered no more : 10 they left off speak- 
ing. 16 When I had waited, (for they 
spake not, but stood still, and answered 
no more,) 17 I said, I will answer also 
my part ; I also will show mine opin- 
ion. 18 For I am full of "matter; 



ordered his words. 10 Heb. they removed 

speeches from themselves. 11 Heb. icords. 



a concession of defeat, but an acknow- 
ledgment of Job's superior wisdom. 
On the contrary, they seemingly as- 
cribe their failure to a moral perver- 
sion in Job which none but God can 
subdue. Elihu quietly intimates that 
the agent for the accomplishment of 
this result is he himself. Thrusteth 
him down — More correctly, putteth 
him to flight. ^1^ is used also of the 

chasing away of smoke, chaff, etc. 
Psa. i, 4 ; hxviii, 2. 

14. He — Job. Directed — Better, 
arrayed. 7]^i? is a military word used in 
a forensic sense, xiii, 18. With your 
speeches — Elihu will not argue in 
their offensive and passionate manner, 
as he has no hard blows dealt by Job 
to resent. He proposes to "limit his 
censure to Job's answer in this dis- 
pute." Elihu can enter the debate free 
from prejudice and animosity. 

Third section — He now turns and ad- 
dresses another auditory, (probably the 
silent one from which he has so recently 
come, whom it is important also to concili- 
ate, see note on ver. 4,) and gives indetail 
his reasons for speaking : 1) The complete 
discomfiture of the friends. 2) The di- 
vine and irresistible afflatus within him. 
3) The spirit of impartiality by luliich 
he is animated. 4) An abiding sense of 
God's fear, 15-22. 

15. They were amazed — The 
three friends are confounded. 

1 6. When I had waited — This may 
be regarded as a question. Should I 
wait because they speak not, because they 
stand still ? etc. 

17. Mine opinion — Bather, My 
knowledge. " Elihu speaks more in the 
scholastic tone of controversy than the 
three." — Delitzsch. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



201 



12 the spirit within me constraineth me. 
19 Behold, my belly is as wine which 
"hath no vent ; it is ready to burst like 
new bottles. 20 I will speak, "that I 
may be refreshed : I will open my lips 
and answer. 21 Let me not, I pray 
you, g accept any man's person ; neither 
let me give flattering titles unto man. 
22 For I know not to give h flattering 



12 Hebrew, the .spirit of my belly. 13 He- 
brew, is lmt opened. 14 Hebrew, that I 

may breathe. oLev. 19. 15; Deut. 1. 17: 

18. The spirit within me — Lit- 
erally, The spirit of my inward part 
"0ft3. The experience of the prophets 
was similar to that of Elihu. Jeremiah 
iv, 19; Amos iii. 8. 

19. Belly — See note xv, 2. "My 
inward part,'' — bitni, same as in ver. 18. 
New bottles — These bottles (see 
Matt. ix. 17) were commonly made of 
goat's skin ; sometimes, also, of ass or 
camel's skin. New bottles were used 
for new wine, and yet they too sometimes 
burst under the fermentation. Burn- 
ing with religions zeal, and, as he be- 
lieves, divinely inspired, Elihu can no 
longer restrain his pent-up emotions — 
a thought most happily illustrated in 
the rush of icords (••matter," ver. 18) 
which marks his introduction. The 
mocking Jews applied the figure of 
the text to the apostles on the day 
of Pentecost : ' s These men are full of 
new wine: " in other words, like wine- 
ski ns, the apostles were bursting from 
excessive fermentation. Hardy re- 
marks of a Buddhistic sectary, that such 
was the extent of his learning that he 
feared his body would burst from its 
expansion ; and to prevent this misfor- 
tune he bound himself with an iron 
girdle. " This conceit arose," says Har- 
dy, " from the idea that the heart is the 
seat of the thoughts as well as of the af- 
fections." — Manual of Buddhism, p. 256. 

20. I will speak — He carries on the 
metaphor in this verse ; the bottle must 
be opened to save it from bursting. Be 
refreshed — The margin is more literal. 
In like manner, Young : 

" Good sense will stagnate: 
Thoughts shut up want air." 

The spirit within constraineth him. 
The precursor of the apostle Paul in 
enthusiasm, sincerity, and tenacious- 



titles : in so doing my Maker would soon 
take me away. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

WHEREFORE, Job, I pray thee, 
hear my speeches, and hearken 
to all my words. 2 Behold, now I 
have opened my mouth, my tongue 
hath spoken * in my mouth. 3 My 



16. 19; Prov. 24. 23; Matt. 22. lfi. h Chapter 

17. 5 ; Psa. 12. 2, 3 ; Prov. 29. 5 ; 1 Thess. 2. 5. 

1 Hebrew, in my palate- 



ness of the truth, he cannot resist the 
divine constraint. His inner nature 
burns with the truths he waits to de- 
liver; one, for instance — the sinner's 
justification through the mercy of God ; 
" the quintessence of all his words," 
thereby anticipating the apostle in the 
doctrine of justification by faith, even 
as the morn anticipates the day. 

21. Accept any man's person. — 
See note xiii, 8. Young as he is, Elihu 
will regard no one, but strive to be im- 
partial. Job charged the friends with 
perverting the truth that they might 
please God, and thus " accept His per- 
son." 

22. Give flattering titles — This ex- 
pression means to give proud titles to 
persons who are worthless. (Dr. Clarke.) 
The practice w r as common among the 
Orientals of addressing superiors with 
long and fulsome, and even divine, ti- 
tles. The ancient Egyptian and Assyr- 
ian inscriptions abound in illustrations. 
In thus paying greater homage to the 
creature than the Creator, " his Maker 
would soon take him away." 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Fourth section — First of all the in- 
terlocutors to address Job by name, Elihu 
invites him to consider that he himself, like 
Job, is a creature of God ; an d as Job has so 
often challenged Deity to justify his ivays, 
and at the same time mode professions of 
fear lest he be overwhelmed by the maj- 
esty of God, he may novi think himself 
safe in listening to the speaker as the 
human deputy of God: and if Job cannot 
ansiver the forthcoming discourses of in- 
struction and reproof he may conclude 
how foolish his challenge and arraign- 
ment of God have been, 1-7. 

2. In my mouth — Or palate. He has 
carefully proved the words he is about 



202 



JOB. 



words shall be of the uprightness of my 
heart: and my lips shall utter knowl- 
edge clearly. 4 a The Spirit of God 
hath made me, and the breath of the 
Almighty hath given me life. 5 If thou 
canst answer me, set thy words in or- 



a Gen. 2. l.—b Chan. 9. 34, 35 ; 13. 20, 21 ; 81. 
2Heb. according to thy mouth. 



to utter, by tasting them. The Hebrew 
word palate stood for a discerning fac- 
ulty, in a sense similar to that of our 
own word taste. (See vi, 30.) " These 
circumstantial statements solemnly in- 
augurate what follows" — Delitzsch. 
"The moment when Blihu begins to 
speak is an event. The natal hour of a 
truth is weightier than that of a world- 
renowned hero. ' ' — Hengstenberg. 

3. Clearly — "What he knows he will 
speak sincerely. 

4. The Spirit of God hath made 
me — See note on xxxii, 8. In the 
origination of every man is thus re- 
peated, according to the view of Scrip- 
ture, a work as divine as that of 
Adam's creation. (Compare Delitzsch, 
Psych., 249.) This passage is cited by 
Theodoret as a proof-text of the divin- 
ity of the Holy Spirit. Hath given 
mt life — Giveth me life, quickeneth 
me. The manifestations of divine pow- 
er in upholding all things " cannot be 
better explained than by calling it a 
continuous creation." — Leibnitz. 

5. Before — Eather, Against me. 
Stand up — Literally, take thy stand. 
" The very ring of the words in Hebrew 
bears the tone of haughty defiance," — 
Schlottmann. 

6. In God's stead — The first clause 
may be more correctly rendered, Be- 
hold, I, like thee, am of God ; that is, his 
creature. I also am formed — "Nip- 
ped " from the clay — an allusion to the 
potter, who nips off a piece of clay 
for the vessel he is about to make. 
Compare x, 9. 

1. My hand. . .heavy — Job feared 
to contend with God lest his majesty 
should overwhelm him. ix, 34 ; xiii, 21 ; 
xxiii, 6. Elihu now assures Job that 
he can listen dispassionately, as he has 
nothing to fear from one, like himself, 
formed from the clay, though he speak 
as the representative of God. He cites 
against Job his own language. For 



der before me, stand up. 6 b Behold, 
I am 2 according to thy wish in God's 
stead: I also am 3 formed out of the 
clay. 7 c Behold, my terror shall not 
make thee afraid, neither shall my hand 
be heavy upon thee. 



3 Hebrew, citt out of the clay. c Chapter 

9. 34 ; 13. 21. 



hand, kaph, (xiii, 21,) he now uses 
ekeph, which may also mean "burden," 
"pressure." 

Main Discourse, 8-33. 

Elihu's long-protracted preamble is 
followed by citations from Job's impet- 
uous and imprudent words. (Verse 9.) 
In his efforts at self-justification Job 
had exaggerated his own righteous- 
ness and impeached the righteousness 
of God Divine silence is no sign of 
divine forgetfulness. God has various 
ways of addressing men, and, while 
apparently antagonizing them, of really 
consulting their highest interests — 
those of the soul. Through dreams, 
(type of inward monitions,) through 
sickness, and through the mediation 
of the angel whose supremacy is 
marked, God communes with man that 
he may withdraw him from the pursuit 
of evil. Affliction has other ends than 
those of punishment. They are pre- 
ventive (prophylactic) and remedial. 
Inward monitions and painful chastise- 
ments prepare the way for the angel 
mediator. Hearkening to him, man 
shall find favour with God, and a reno- 
vation of body and soul that shall well 
forth with the highest joy. 

First division — Elihu rehearses 

SEVERAL OP THE OBJECTIONABLE UT- 
TERANCES of Job, and in so doing 

LAYS OUT TO A CERTAIN EXTENT THE 
GROUNDWORK OF HIS DISCOURSES. Ys. 

8-11. (See Stickel's Hiob, 232-236, or 
Davidson's Job, pp. xxxviii-xli.) 

1. That Job asseverates his innocence, 
and thus implicates God in a charge of 
indifference towards the upright. For an- 
swer see next page. 

2. That Job has declared God to be arbi- 
trary and cruel toward men, in making 
him to be his [Job's] " jailer and most 
crafty watcher." (See note on xiii, 27, 
which Elihu cites quite literally.) In 
so doing Job denies the divine rectitude 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



203 



8 Surely thou hast spokeu 4 iu mine 
hearing, and I have heard the voice of 
thy words, saying, 9 d I am clean with- 
out transgression, I am innocent; neither 
is there iniquity in me. 10 Behold, he 
findeth occasions against me, c he count- 
eth me for his enemy ; 1 1 f He putteth 
my feet in the stocks, he marketh all 
my paths. 

12 Behold, in this thou art not just : 



4 Hebrew, in mine ears. d Chapter 9. 17 ; 

10. 7; 11.4; 16. 17; 23.10,11; 27.5; 29. 14; 31. 1. 

e Chapter 13. 24 ; 16. 9 ; 19. 11. -/Chapter 

13. 27 ; 14. 16 ; 31. 4. 



in the sufferings of men in general. For 
answer see page 209. 

3. That "in the proposition of Job, that 
he suffers and yet is innocent before God, 
lies the consequence that man without sin 
is no better than the man with sin, and 
that the pious have no advantage." (See 
Stickel, 234.) If such be the case, Job vir- 
tually denies the providence of God. For 
answer see page 214. 

8. In mine hearing — "With the He- 
brew, to " speak in the ear " was to 
speak openly, not secretly, which might 
give rise to misconstrued ms. Elihu 
was so astonished that he could scarce- 
ly believe his ears w r hen he heard Job 
in the first place declare his innocence, 
and, secondly, charge God with cruelty. 

9. 10. He gives not the exact lan- 
guage, but the substance of Job's ex- 
pressions, in ix, 21; x, 7 ; xi, 4; xiii, 24 ; 
xvi, 17; xix. 11; xxiii, 10; xxvii, 5. 

10. Occasions — Rather, enmities, 
hostilities. 

11. Elihu reproduces here xiii, 27, 
where see note. Says Caryl: "Having 
ended his sweet, ingenious, insinuating 
preface, Elihu falls roundly to the busi- 
ness, and begins a very sharp charge." 

Second division — God's three modes 
OF AFFECTIONATE visitation of men t 

furnish a sufficient replication to 
Job's first charge of divine indif- 
ference, 12-28. 

a. First mode of visitation is by the 
voice of conscience in dreams, 12-18. 

Postulate : God is greater than mortal 
■man, (enosh,) and must do right became 
he is great.12, 1 3. This infinite superiority 
of God is displayed in his visitations to 
men in dreams. These God makes, in 
order that, coming close to the soul, he may 
awaken a consciousness of guilt, withdraw 



I will answer thee, that God is greater 
than man. 13 Why dost thou e strive 
against him ? for 5 he giveth not account 
of any of his matters. 14 h For God 
speaketh once, yea twice, yet man per- 
ceiveth it not. 15 'In a dream, in a 
vision of the night, when deep sleep 
falleth upon men, in slumberings upon 
the bed; 16 "Then 6 he openeth the 
ears of men, and sealeth their instruc- 



clsa. 45. 9. 5 Heb. he arutwereth not. — - 

h Chap. 40. 5 ; Psa. 62. 11. i Num. 12. 6 ; chap. 

4. 13. — -k Chap. 36. 10, 15. 6 Heb. he reveal- 

eth, or, uncover eth. 



man from the commission of sin, and save 
him from utttr destruction, 14-18. 

12. God. . .greater than man — In- 
finite in knowledge, God fathoms the 
depths of the heart, and takes cogni- 
zance of evil and of transgressions that 
man dreams not of. " Suffering serves 
to bring sin to the surface, to drive it 
forth, that we may know it, repent, and 
conquer." — Ebrard. Sin developes a 
moral phenomenon — even this, that it 
is the ground and occasion of divine 
and affectionate visitation. 

13. For he giveth not account, 
etc. — God is not accountable for his 
doings, least of all to man ; yet he con- 
descends to communicate with man, as 
is seen in the following verses. 

14. God speaketh — The reproof is 
a delicate one. Job's complaints of 
the divine indifference are groundless : 
for God admonishes men, speaketh once, 
twice, and renews his admonitions when 
man is inattentive. Let the reader re- 
count the number and various modes 
of the divine appeals to himself. Each 
day, like the changes in a kaleidoscope, 
presents a new combination of goodness, 
mercy, and love. On the other hand, 
" Sorrow dogging sin, afflictions sorted, 
anguish of all sizes," are no less tender 
voices of God to the children of men. 

15. In a vision of the night — See 
note oniv, 13-15. The vision supposed 
to have been seen by Colonel Gardiner, 
and ending in his conversion, is a case in 
point; also, the cases of Schubert, New- 
ton, etc. The taking up and adopting 
of the dream of Eliphaz not only com- 
pliments "the old gentleman," as Scott 
calls him, but shrewdly reproves Job 
for not having given it more attention. 

16. Sealeth their instruction — 



204 



JOB. 



tion, 17 That he may withdraw man 
from, his 7 purpose, and hide pride from 
man. 18 He keepeth hack his soul 
from the pit, and his life 8 from perish- 
ing by the sword. 
19 He is chastened also with pain up- 



Heb. xcorlc. 8Heb./rom passing by the 



" Seals it (the ear) with warning for 
them." — Hitzig. God opens the ear 
that man may comprehend the instruc- 
tion {chastisement) which he seals upon 
the soul represented by the ear. Every 
human being thus assumes new interest 
if, with Elihu, we look upon him as the 
end of divine thoughts, purposes, and 
discipline ; God stamping his seal on the 
soul even, that the impressions may be 
deepened and perpetuated. Matters 
of moment are sealed against loss or 
harm. See note xiv, 17 ; Deut. xxxii, 
34; Isa. viii, 16. 

17. Purpose — HfetyO, deed; used, 

like the Latin /acinus, in the sense 
of evil deed. Of the two words employed 
for man, the second, geber, expresses 
might, and thus forms an antithesis. 
For "weak man," Adham, God inter- 
poses obstacles to the commission of sin, 
and from " the man of might " covers 
up (hides) the dazzling object of tempta- 
tion. No one can estimate the restraint 
God thus exercises over the soul. "Were 
there no protecting grace there would 
be but little, if any, human virtue. 
Pride is specially mentioned, because 
it is a sin to which human beings are 
most easily subjected, a kind of leader 
among temptations, and a vice, too, 
w T hen once in possession, which cleav- 
eth with a tenaciousness greater than 
that of all other sins. 

18. Pit — Shahhath. In some coun- 
tries, as in Athens, criminals were cast 
down into a deep pit. They were left 
in the darkness, hopelessly to die of 
starvation. The pit is evidently used 
here in the sense of destruction, and 
as the penalty of evildoing. The oldest 
of the sacred Books of the Brahmans 
(Rig- Veda, ix, 7 3-7 8) speaks of a pit into 
which the lawless are hurled down, 
and into which Indra casts those who 
offer no sacrifices. (See Muller's 
Chips, i, 47.) 

b. The second mode of divine vis- 



on his bed, and the multitude of his 
bones with strong pain : 20 ' So that 
his life abhorreth bread, and his soul 
9 dainty meat. 2 1 His flesh is consumed 
away, that it cannot be seen ; and his 
bones that were not seen, stick out. 



sword. 1 Ps.107.18. 9 Heb. meat of desire. 



ITATION IS BY GRIEVOUS, DANGEROUS 

disease. Affliction is in itself the voice 
of God to the soul: its design being to 
accomplish purposes in respect to which 
the first mode of visitation is insufficient. 
Elihu thus rneete the ■murmurs of Job 
over affliction in the abstract, and his own 
in particular; and assures him that his 
longing for God to answer is already 
met by the chastenings of disease, 19-22. 

19. He is chastened — For the en- 
lightened views of Eliphaz on the sub- 
ject of afflictions, seech, v, 17, 18. The 
difference between the two is, that Eli- 
phaz fails to recognize their purifying 
and sanctifying influence on the heart. 
" He sees in them a fire that scorches 
and burns, not one that refines and clar- 
ifies, as the furnace refines silver." — 
Wordsworth. Comp. 1 Pet. i, 6 ; iv, 1 9. 
The multitude of his bones — Rather 
as in the Kethib, and with a conflict in 
his bones continually. Justin (xxiii, 2) 
says of the last sickness of Agathocles, 
that "a pestilential humour spreading 
through all his nerves and joints, he 
was tormented, as it were, by an in- 
testine vjar among all his members." 
With the ancient Hebrew, health meant 
"soundness," "peace; " and the same 
word, shalom, was used for ail three. 
On the contrary, disease entailed a dis- 
harmony, conflict, and strife in the 
whole being, here represented by the 
bones, the framework of man. 

20. His life abhorreth bread — A 
marked feature of the elephantiasis, to 
which Elihu alludes — the life, hhayyah, 
and the soul, nephesh, loathe that which 
is palatable in a condition of health. 
Ehhu, in this discussion of the sick 
man, has sufficiently touched salient 
features of Job's disease to unmistak- 
ably indicate whom he meant. (See 
note ii, 7.) 

21. Bones that were not seen — 
" "Wasted are his bones, they no more 
are seen " — thus the Kethib. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



205 



22 Yea, his soul draweth m near unto 
the grave, and his life to the destroyers. 
23 If thure be a messenger with him, 
an interpreter, one among a thousand, 
to show unto man his uprightness • 
24 Then he is gracious unto him, ana 



mChap. 7. 7. 10 Or, an atonement. 



22. The destroyers — Many com- 
mentators understand them to be an- 
gelic powers, to whom is intrusted the 
work of death. Aben Ezra and Ewald 
call them M angels of death." The Sep- 
tuagint renders the clause, " his life 
[is] in hades." Compare Psa. lxxviii, 
49; 2 Sam. xxiv, 16. Others (Kosen- 
miiller, Schlottman, etc.) understand 
simply mortal pains; but this explana- 
tion, as Delitzsch well says, "does not 
commend itself, because the Elihu sec- 
tion has a strong angelogical colour- 
ing in common with the book of Job." 
True penitence may stay the execution 
of the decree of death. Comp. 1 Chron. 
xxi. 15 and Luke xiii, 9. 

c. The third mode of divine visi- 
tation IS, THAT OF THE ANGEL INTER- 
CESSOR AND MEDIATOR, WHO HAS FOUND 

a ransom. The objective point of the 
look — a theophany — the ulterior central 
orb toward which all gravitates, now 
comts more distinctly into view, though 
still under a haze: a theophany, and 
this alone, can fully solve the mystery of 
sorrowing existence. Verses 23-28. 

23. If there be — What follows is 
"an hypothesis hanging on an if— but 
it is an if, the answer to wdiich is the 
amen of the Gospel." — Evans. With 
him — vpy, better, "for him." A mes- 
senger T - -an interpreter — See Ex- 
cursus VII, page 207. Uprightness 
— Or, duty. Tyndale and Cranmcr ren- 
der it " right way." 

24. I have found — The finding 
alluded to in V1NV7D is, primarily, that 
which comes from search or effort. The 
use of the word is similar to that of 
wpdfievoc in Heb. ix, 12 : " Having 
obtained (found) eternal redemption." 
Compare "find grace," Heb. iv, 16. 

A ransom — Margin, an atonement, ")Q3, 
kopher, that which covers, is generally 
used with respect to sin in the sense 
of making expiation. It is the substi- 



saith. Deliver him from going down to 
the pit : I have found 10 a ransom. 25 His 
flesh shall be fresher " than a child's : 
he shall return to the days of his youth: 
26 He shall pray unto God, and he will 
be favourable unto him : and he shall 



11 Hebrew, than childhood. 



tutive consideration, whether of money, 
(Exod. xxx, 12,) blood, or life, by which 
guilt is regarded as covered up, and in 
a certain sense concealed from the eye 
of God. In the ancient economy of 
grace God was pleased to accept the 
propitiatory offering, (ransom,) or, more 
properly, the motive implied in its pre- 
sentation, and to look propitiously up- 
on weak and erring man. The great 
angel here intervenes with his ransom, 
the nature of which Elihu does not dis- 
close, and saves man from going down 
to the pit. Elihu again alludes to this 
ransom under the same term, kopher, 
when the danger is in like manner in- 
describably great. Comp. ch. xxxvi, 18, 
on which see note. The fact that the 
great ransom (kopher) there (chapter 
xxxvi, 18) cannot be repentance, is quite 
decisive against the view of Hengsten- 
berg, that the ransom spoken of here 
is repentance. 

25. Fresher than a child's — His 
flesh swells with the vigour of youth, (De- 
litzsch,) or, more than in his youth, 
(Hitzig,) according as jD is regarded 
as causal or comparative. The word 
ratphash appears in the Arabic with 
letters transposed, tarphasha, and sig- 
nifies to "become fresh or convales- 
cent," or to " grow green." The figure 
is taken from plants long withered, but 
restored to more than pristine vigour 
under the life-giving power of copious 
showers of rain. The change Elihu 
speaks of is like that which took place 
in Xaaman when delivered from lep- 
rosy, the type of sin. In the view of 
Elihu the perfect health of the body sets 
forth in emblem the work wrought in 
the soul. Thus Christ spoke the out- 
ward healing, and at the same time 
healed the soul. " If any man be in 
Christ he is a new creature." In the 
old economy temporal blessings were 
brought into greater prominence than 
in the new. 



206 



JOB. 



see his face with joy ; for he will render 
unto man his righteousness. 27 12 He 
looketh upon men, and if any n say ; I 
have sinned, and perverted that which 
was right, and it ° profited me not ; 
28 13 He will p deliver his soul from 
going into the pit, and his life shall see 
the light. 

29 Lo, all these things worketh God 



12 Or, He shall look tcpon men, and say, I 

have sinned, &c. n 2 Sam. 12. 13 ; Prov.28.13 ; 

Luke 15. 21 ; 1 John 1. 9. o Rom. 6. 21. 



26. Pray unto God — Referring to 
habitual prayer after pardon. " In this 
description of the renovation which the 
man experiences, it is everywhere as- 
sumed that he has taken the right 
way announced to him by the mediat- 
ing angel." — Delitzsch. Joy — Shouts 
of joy. (Furst.) The experience of the 
redeemed man is of the most joyous de- 
scription. He beholds God's face recon- 
ciled. His righteousness — St. Greg- 
ory's comment is exceedingly happy: 
"It is called our righteousness, not be- 
cause it is ours from ourselves, but be- 
cause it is made ours from the divine 
bounty, as we say in the Lord's prayer, 
' Give us this day our daily bread.' See ; 
we both call it ours and yet pray for 
it to be given us. For it becomes ours 
when we receive it ; but yet it is God's, 
who gives it." 

27. And say — And sing. The verb 
is of the same meaning as in the in- 
scription of Psalm vii, Prov. xxv, 20, 
etc. It profited me not — It was not 
requited to me. The Vulgate had the 
correct idea : "I did not receive ac- 
cording to my deserts." Grace, instead 
of justice, is meted out to him. The 
reader may mark the resemblance be- 
tween the confession of the penitent 
here and that of Job xlii, 6. 

27, 28. The song of the redeemed 
one — He singeth unto men and saith, 
" I have sinned and perverted that which was 

right, 
And it was not requited unto me : 
He hath redeemed my soul from going into the 

pit, 
And my life rejoiceth in the light. 1 ' 

" Openly, before all the people," (Hirt- 
zel,)he sings his short and comprehen- 
sive psalm of gratitude. Its minor note 
is the miserere of sin, its major note the 
triumphant view of the light of God's 
countenance. Its closing thought is 



14 oftentimes with man, 30 q To bring 
back his soul from the pit, to be en- 
lightened with the light of the living. 

31 Mark well, Job, hearken unto 
me : hold thy peace, and I will speak. 

32 If thou hast any thing to say, answer 
me : speak, for I desire to justify thee. 

33 If not, r hearken unto me : hold thy 
peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom. 



13 Or, He hath delivered my soul, &c, and 

my life. jt>Isa. 38. 17. 14Heb. twice and 

thrice. q Ver. 28; Psa. 56. 13. rPsa. 34. 11. 

one of beauty; literally, " my [very] life 
sees in the light." To see the light 
was, in the classics also, equivalent to 
live; while "leaving the light of the 
sun " was equivalent to death. Comp. 
the Iliad, xviii, 11. From going into 
the pit. See note, ver. 18. His life 
shall see the light — (See above.) The 
beautiful sentiment of Elihu is among 
the many of the " Elihu section," which 
unexpectedly interweave themselves 
with the main body of the work ; as, 
for instance, this with chap, x, 21, 22. 
See Excursus YI, page 197. Instead 
of forebodings of darkness, such as tor- 
mented Job, (chap, x, 21,) the redeemed 
penitent shall walk in the light. On 
verses 27 and 28 see a sermon by Til- 
lotson, " The Unprofitableness of Sin in 
this Life an Argument for Repentance." 
The Conclusion — Elihu reasserts 

THE END OF ALL DIVINE VISITATION TO 
BE THAT DECLARED IN THE SECOND OF 
THE THREE MODES HE HAS UNFOLDED. 

This section serves not only as an epi- 
logue, out as a transition to the second 
discourse, 29-33. 

29. Oftentimes — Literally, twice, 
thrice. The Septuagint renders it 
" three ways," meaning the three modes 
given above. 

30. The pit— For the fifth time the 
word shahhath — pit — has been used in 
this description, as if to intensify its 
terrible significance. (See on ver. 1 8.) 
The purpose of God's spiritual dealings 
with man is declared to be, to save him 
from destruction. John iii, 16. Light 
of the living — Eather, Light of life ; 
in contrast to the darkness of the pit. • 

32. If not, hearken unto me — Job 
maintains silence, and thus tacitly ad- 
mits his own dereliction and the reason- 
ableness of Elihu's views. The kind 
appeals of Elihu are sunlight to the 



CHAPTER XXXIIL 



207 



heart, and melt while they enlighten. 
Here we may fix the beginning of Job's 
repentance. 

EXCURSUS No. VII. 
The Angel Mediator. 
Some of the profoundest Biblical 
scholars, among whom may be men- 
tioned Michaelis and Yelthusen, look 
upon this, together with other passages 
in the book of Job, as relics of a prime- 
val revelation, primitive oracles which 
have perished, except the few excerpta 
or fragments which still remain im- 
bedded in this book and in Gen- 
esis. The pre-eminently great com- 
mentator upon this book, Schultens, 
gives it as his judgment that the Angel 
of the Covenant, the Messiah, is the 
person here described ; and he alleges, 
(as summed up by J. Pye Smith, Scrip. 
Test., i, 497,) (1) the correspondence 
of the titles ; (2) the suitableness of 
the descriptions; (3) the affinity with 
chap, xix, 25 ; (4) the scope and argu- 
ment of the passage as determining rea- 
sons for his opinion. (Com.inJobum, 
ii, 918.) Had the word ^7D (malak) 
been rendered angel, as in the old ver- 
sions, instead of messenger, the sense 
would have been more clear. To this 
angel is assigned an office that plain- 
ly distinguishes him from other angels. 

It is that of interpreter, PPO, melits, 

(see note on chapters xvi, 20, and 
xvii, 3,) which, according to Gesenius, 
Furst, etc., might have been translated 
also Intercessor or Mediator — for all 
these interpretations are justified by the 
root louts. Jewish prayers show that 
this Interpreter was always identified in 
their minds with the expected Redeem- 
er of Israel, as in the following prayer : 
" Raise up for us the righteous inter- 
preter — say I have found a ransom." 
The whole passage in Job is quoted (says 
Canon Cook, in loc, who cites "Wiinsche) 
at the sacrifice offered still in manj- 
countries of Europe on the eve of the 
great day of atonement. The master 
of each house, as he recites these words, 
strikes his head three times with a cock 
he has meanwhile been holding in his 
hands, saying at each stroke, " Let this 



cock be a commutation for me : let him 
be substituted in my place : let him be 
an atonement for me : let this cock be 
put to death : but let a fortunate life 
be vouchsafed to me and all Israel." 
For further particulars see "Allen's 
Modern Judaism," p. 393. Jewish faith 
has ever held most tenaciously to the 
conviction that the Angel Interpreter 
and the Messiah are one. His pre-em- 
inence is strikingly set forth by the 
exuression, "one out of a thousand," 
(Cant, v, 10; Psa. xlv, 2,) by which 
Elihu means to convey, not oneness of 
nature with the angels, but superiority 
of being. Had Elihu been a Jew, we 
would naturally suppose he meant the 
Angel of Jehovah, of whose appear- 
ances on earth, even in patriarchal 
times, abundant traces remain, attest- 
ing a depth of affection for man that 
led him often to self-disclosure, thus 
anticipating his advent as " God mani- 
fest in the flesh." "The angel of Je- 
hovah of primeval history," says De- 
litzsch, " is the oldest prefigurement in 
the history of redemption of the future 
incarnation, without which the Old 
Testament history would be a con- 
fused quod libet of premises and radii, 
without a conclusion and a centre ; and 
the angelic form is accordingly the old- 
est form which the hope of a deliverer 
assumes, and to which it recurs, in con- 
formity to the law of the circular con- 
nexion between the beginning and the 
end in Mai. iii, 1." (See Jf ' Clintock and 
Strong's Gyc, iv, 534.) 

The probable descent of Elihu from 
a collateral branch of the family of 
Abraham renders it not improbable that 
he possessed the patriarchal knowledge 
of this strange superhuman being who 
called himself God, and who was wor- 
shipped as God. The extreme exposure 
— that of death and the pit — (of which 
the context speaks,) a juncture where 
human and angelic help are useless, de- 
mands divine interposition. The office 
of this Angel Mediator is not alone to 
make known the will of a superior — 
his conditions of deliverance — but to be 
an agent or mediator of that deliver- 
ance. With great assurance Zockler 
(in Lange, p. 564) assumes it to be 
" certain that the mediatorial angel of 



208 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

FURTHERMORE Elihu answered 
and said, 
2 Hear my words, ye wise men; and 



a Chap. 6. 30; 12. 11. 



salvation is put essentially on an equal- 
ity with the angel of disease and death 
mentioned just before, [but] not exalted 
above him," and compares ver. 22b, with 
Matt, viii, 9, and parallel passages. 
Zockler seems to overlook the striking 
resemblance between the relation this 
Angel Intercessor bears to "the de- 
stroyers," and that borne by the " Cap- 
tain of our salvation " to htm that had 
the power of death, that is, the devil. 
Heb. ii, 14. With Elihu the province 
of this mighty Angel is twofold — to res- 
cue dying man from fearful superhuman 
beings — " the slayers " — and to save 
him from the more darkly adumbrated 
doom of going down into the pit. "With 
the apostle the mission of the great 
Mediator is substantially the same, but 
more fully disclosed. The oneness of 
the mission— though there be the in- 
terval of many centuries — points to one- 
ness of being. In both cases it means 
deliverance — deliverauce in a field and 
f r 3m dangers in the presence of which 
human prowess and power can accom- 
plish nothing. 

Elihu claims to have spoken by spe- 
cial inspiration. Although, as an Ara- 
mean, he might be outside of Israel, 
he was signally honoured (as is plain 
throughout the whole address) as an 
organ for the communication of divine 
truth. On the other hand, overlooking 
the fact that Job and his book are alto- 
gether extra Israel, some rationalizing 
commentators are disposed, because of 
its Aramaic origin, to count this won- 
derful revelation through Elihu with 
the many sage vaticinia of the heathen 
w T orld ; one of which, from Sophocles, 
((Edipus Coloneus,) Zockler cites : One 
soul, in my opinion, for ten thousand, 
will suffice to make atonement, if with 
kindly feelings it draws nigh. 

CHAPTER XXXI Y. 

Eljhu's Second Discourse. 

1. Elihu spake — Literally, answered. 

(See note on chap, hi, 2.) Elihu waits 

for Job to respond. The chapter is de- 



give ear unto me, ye that have knowl- 
edge. 3 a For the ear trieth words, as the 
1 mouth tasteth. meat. 4 Let us choose 
to us judgment : let us know among our- 

1 Hebrew, palate. 



voted to establishing the justice of God. 
Elihu does not argue so much from in- 
stances of divine providence as from 
the necessity of the divine nature, and 
from the fact that God founded, up- 
holds, and continues to govern, the 
world. His reasoning is not inductive, 
but rather through the intuitions of the 
moral sense. Man feels that God must 
do right — a like argument to that which 
Goethe employs in proof of the divine 
existence. His government is compre- 
hensive and impartial. The high and 
the low are punished with equal sever- 
ity. That government is founded in wis- 
dom: certainly man can not improve 
upon it. (Verse 33.) The language is 
more severe than we should have ex- 
pected from the opening remarks of 
Elihu ; yet it is marked by a deference 
which was wanting on the part of the 
friends. He who speaks under the di- 
vine impulse must at times utter un- 
welcome truths. 

Proof from the nature and admin- 
istration of God that man has no 
right to doubt god's righteousness 
OR justice. Chap, xxxiv. 

Exordium, 2-9. a. An appeal to the 
luise that they shall hearken with the ear 
of the understanding, and subject his ar- 
gument to the ordeal of reason, 2-4. 

2. O ye wise — Other listeners than 
Job and the three were probably pres- 
ent; and either to them or an imagi- 
nary audience he now makes his appeal. 
This circuitous mode of address helps 
to relieve the severity of the chastise- 
ment he is about to administer to Job. 

3. As the mouth tasteth — Literally, 
As the palate tastes in order to eat. See 
note on xxxiii, 2, and xii, 11. 

4. Choose judgment — Better, Prove 
the right. He proposes to bring to the 
touchstone of right the matter at issue 
between Job and his God. Compare 
1 Thess. v, 21. 

b. Elihu proceeds to cite JoVs objec- 
tionable sayings, which he thinks contain 
the most dangerous sentiments of the 
wicked, and which reasonably give rise 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



209 



selves what is good. 5 For Job hath 
said, b I am righteous : and c God hath 
taken away my judgment. 6 d Should I 
lie against my right? 2 my wound is in- 
curable without transgression. 7 What 
man is like Job, e wAodrinketh up scorn- 
ing like water ; 8 Which goeth in com- 



b Chap. 33. 9. c Chap. 27. 2. d Chap. 9. 17. 

2 Hcb. mine arrow, chap. 6. 4 ; 1H. 13. 

e Chap. 15. 16. -/Chap. 9. 22.23, 30; 35. 3; Mai. 



to suspicions as to the company and as- 
sociations of Job, 5-9. 

5. For Job hath said — See outline, 
page 202. Job has been guilty of a 
twofold error ; first in asserting his own 
righteousness, and secondly in declar- 
ing that God had not treated him ac- 
cording to right. Comp. x, 7 ; xxvii, 6, 2. 
The first of these citations is but pre- 
paratory to the second, which contains 
the theme he is about to treat, and which 
is taken verbally from xxvii, 2. 

6. Should I lie against my right, 
etc. — Though this is not exactly, it is 
virtually, the language of Job. Com- 
pare, for instance, chap, vi, 4; ix, 17, 20; 
xvi, 8. The sense of the first clause is, 
according to Schlottmann, "Shall I de- 
clare myself guilty while I know myself 
innocent ? " But the reading of Hitzig 
is more exact and terse: "Against my 
right I shall he;" that is, With right 
on my side I am accounted a liar in 
maintaining it. My -wound — Literally, 
My arrow — the cause, by synecdoche, 
put for the effect. Comp. vi, 4. 

7. Drinketh up scorning like wa- 
ter — He uses against Job one of the 
figures of Eliphaz. (see note on xv, 16,) 
in which "iniquity" is the subject in- 
stead of " scorning," as here. 

8. In company — Literally, To the 
company. That Job should have uttered 
such words (verses 5 and 6) stirs the 
indignation of Elihu. His zeal for God 
and the truth leads him, like the friends, 
into embittered language and unjustifi- 
able assault. His view is in general 
just, that the language a man speaks 
betokens the company he keeps. He 
intimates that the complaints Job makes 
are merely the sentiments of the utterly 
godless, though in another guise. Like 
sentiments lead to like company, and, 
lice, versa, as we see in ti.e following 
verse, low associations give rise to low 
ideas. Dr. Clarke thinks there is an 

Vol. V.— 15 



panv with the workers of iniquity, and 
walketh with wicked men ? 9 For f he 
hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that 
he should delight himself with God. 

10 Therefore hearken unto me, ye 
3 men of understanding : s far be it from 
God, that he should do wickedness ; and 

3. 14. 3Heb. men of heart. fir Gen. IS. 25; 

Deut. 32. 4 ; 2 Chron. 19. 7 ; chap. 8. 3 ; 36. 23 ; 
Psa. 92. 15; Rom. 9. 14. 

allusion here to a caravan, in which all 
kinds of persons were found. 

9. It profiteth a man nothing, etc. 
— Job had, indeed, used a similar ex- 
pression, (xxi, 15,) but had applied it to 
the wicked. He had maintained the 
contrary, (xvii, 9, xxi, 15, xxviii, 28,) 
though it must be admitted that some 
of Job's repinings are susceptible of 
such an interpretation (ch. ix, 22-25, 
xxi, 7, xxiv, 1) as he himself seems to 
have felt at the close of his description of 
the happines-s of the wicked, (xxi, 7-15.) 
The variations, if not errors, Elihu 
makes in his citations from Job are 
no more than might have been expected 
from one who had to rely solely on his 
memory for the points made in the 
course of the long discussion. They 
serve to illustrate and demonstrate the 
reality of the debate, and more par- 
ticularly -the genuineness of the Elihu 
section. Had Eli'hu's speeches been 
an interpolation, (see Excursus VI,) as 
some German commentators hold, ordi- 
nary prudence, to say nothing of hu- 
man workmanship in general, would 
have furnished joinering different from 
this. 

Main division. Elihu formulates 

AND REFUTES JOB'S ERROR BY A COUNTER 
PROPOSITION : THE NATURE OF GOD NOT 
ONLY DECLARES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD 
TO DO W r RONG, BUT NECESSITATES RIGHT 
DOING IN ALL HIS WORKS, 10-30. 

a. The proposition is stated (10-12) 
and enforced by the consideration that the 
creation and continued preservation of the 
world, and all that live, imply that God, 
because of his almightiness thus declared, 
and who consequently must forever be in- 
dependent of all, must be animated by love 
for his creatures. u An almighty, and at 
the same time an unjust, God, is an unim- 
aginable thought" — Hengstenberg. Vers. 
10-15. Comp. Bildad's position, chap, 
viii, 3. 

O. T. 



210 



JOB. 



from, the Almighty, that he should com- 
mit iniquity. 11 '"For the work of a 
man shall he render unto him, and cause 
every man to find according to his ways. 
12 Yea, surely God will not do wick- 
edly, neither will the Almighty * pervert 
judgment. 13 Who hath given him a 



7tPsa. 62. 12; Prov. 24. 12; Jer. 32. 19; Ezek. 
33. 20 ; Matt. 16. 27 ; Rom. 2. 6 ; 2 Cor. 5. 10 ; 1 Pet. 
1. 17 ; Rev. 22. 12. 

10. Men of understanding — Liter- 
ally, Men of heart Far be it from God 

— Far from God be wickedness, and in- 
iquity (far he it) from the Almighty! 
The italics in A. V. are not needed. 
The word rendered far is a strong ex- 
pression of aversion. He abhors the 
thought that wickedness should or could 
belong to God. If such were the case, 
man would have to deal with an infinite 
monster. The entrance of evil into the 
divine nature would be the wreck of 
right, of justice, and of all hope. Happy 
are we that we have not to harbour the 
thought of omnipotence linked with 
evil. " If God is the author of evil, he 
is consequently not good ; and if he is 
not good, he is not God." — Basil the 
Great. 

11. The work of a man— ^Q, The 

same as in vii, 2, (which see,) and, like 
the Sanscrit Karma, involves the ideas 
of deed and desert. The deed essen- 
tially contains the desert, so that in the 
thought of man, as well as that of God, 
the one necessitates the other. For 
— Rather, or much m.ore. And cause 
every man to find, etc. — The literal 
rendering of this clause discloses a 
startling element of retribution. It 
reads: "According to a man's way, 
He causeth it to find him." However 
wide the orbit in which retribution 
moves, sooner or later it overtakes the 
evil-doer. See note, iv. 8. 

12. Surely — The word is radically 
the amen, verily, of the New Testament. 
In no stronger language could he la}* 
down the proposition he is about to il- 
lustrate — God cannot do wrong. The 
titles God bears — El and Shaddai — are 
a guarantee that evil can in no form 
belong to God. " Sin, unrighteousness, 
dwells only in the sphere of the finite." 
Dr. Sam. Clarke treats verses 10-12 in 
two sermo. s on " The Justice of God." 



charge over the earth ? or who hath dis- 

Eosed 4 the whole world? 14 If he set 
is heart 5 upon man, if he k gather un- 
to himself his spirit and his breath ; 
15 'All flesh shall perish together, and 
man shall turn again unto dust. 16 If 
now thou hast understanding, hear this : 



iChap. 8. 3. 4Hebrew, all of it? 5 He- 
brew, upon him. k Psalm 104. 29. ZGen. 

3. 19 ; Eccles. 12. 7. 



13. Who hath given him a charge, 

etc. — The n is paragogic, not directive. 
The clause should read, Who hath given 
the earth in charge to him? Evil-doing 
can not be imputed to Deity, because 
of the absoluteness of the divine govern- 
ment. There is none higher than him- 
self, therefore none whose favour God 
needs to seek. A deputy may be tempt- 
ed to do wrong to please his superior, 
but not God ; for it was he " who found- 
ed, Dfc^, the whole world." Of his own 

free will he governs his own world. 
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
right ? " Gen. xviii, 25. Compare Rom. 
hi, 5, 6. 

14. Upon man — The marginal read- 
ing is now quite generally accepted — 
upon him, meaning God himself. That 
God is not self-seeking — does not set 
his heart upon himself, but is a being 
of benevolence — is evinced by the con- 
tinued preservation of all living beings. 
He needs but withdraw to himself his 
spirit and breath, and all flesh would 
suddenly perish together. Life is not 
a spontaneous product of matter, but 
an element imparted to it by God, and 
entirely dependent upon him. The ar- 
gument in brief is : God is not selfish, 
and therefore is not unjust. Compare 
Wisdom of Solomon, xi, 24-26. 

b. The divine justice is still further 
proven from the conception of God as 
ruler of the universe, (Zockler,) verses 
16-30. a. Without justice the adminis- 
tration of the world could not be carried 
on; for " right and government are mu- 
tually conditioned." (Delitzsch.) The 
impartiality of the divine government, and 
the equal regard of God for his creatures, 
are made manifest through the mode in 
which he treats the great ones of the earth; 
also b;i the way he inflicts the one com- 
mon doom of death, 16-20. 

16. If now thou, etc. — And if there is 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



211 



hearken to the voice of my words. 
17 m Shall even he that hateth right 
"govern ! and wilt thou condemn him 
that is most just? 18 n Is it fit to say 
to a king. Thou art wicked I and to 
princes, Ye are ungodly? 19 How much 
less to him that ° accepteth not the per- 
sons of princes, nor regardeth the rich 
more than the poor? for p they all are 



m Gen. 18. 25 ; 2 Sam. 23. 3. 6 Heb. bind. 

/lExod. 22. 28. oDeut. 10. 17; 2 Chron. 

19.7; Acts 10. 34; Rom. 2. 11; Gal. 2. 6; Eph. 
6. 9 ; Col. 3. 25 ; 1 Pet. 1. 17. V Chap. 31. 15. 

understanding. The original does not 
necessarily convey any reflection upon 
Job : it rather invites Job's special at- 
tention to another form of argumenta- 
tion. Elihu is about to announce truths 
that ought to be self-evident, and yet 
that had been overlooked by the friends. 
17. Govern — The prime meaning of 
the Hebrew is "restrain." Eichhorn, 
Hitzig, etc., propose to read *)N as a 

noun, thus, "restrain wrath;" but the 
reading of the A. V., even, with which 
agree Ewald, Dillmann, etc., accords 
better with the argument of Elihu, 
notwithstanding the opinion of Um- 
breit, that the rendering wrath is fa- 
voured by the parallelism. Right is 
equivalent to law, order; wrong means 
lawlessness, confusion, anarchy. The 
idea is absurd, so Elihu argues, that a 
wrongdoer or a hater of the right would 
govern — "restrain" — (a world.) But 
God does govern the world, as Elihu 
proceeds to show; thus establishing 
his proposition that injustice does not 
belong to God. Most just — Literally, 
the just, the mighty. 
13. Is it fit to say — "lENn may also 

signify, "Him who saith." Thou art 
wicked — Some ascribe this language 
to God, "the most just," and read, 
Him (God) who saith to a king, Thou 
worthless one, (literally, belial,) etc. ; 
which accords better with the context. 
19. Omit italics, how much less to, and 
read: Him that— T0K- God treats 
all, the rich and the poor, even princes, 
according to their deserts. In verses 
19 and 20 Elihu establishes the impar- 
tiality of God. The Wisdom of Solo- 
mon (vi, 7) furnishes a good comment 
on this verse. 



the work of his hands. 20 In a moment 
shall they die, and the people shall be 
troubled q at midnight, and pass away : 
and 7 the mighty shall be taken away 
without hand. 21 r For his eyes are 
upon the ways of man, and he seeth all 
his goings. 22 a There is no dai-kness, 
nor shadow of death, where the work- 
ers of iniquity may hide themselves. 



tfExod. 12. 29, 30. 7 Heb. they shall take 

away the mighty. r2 Chron. 16. 9; chap. 

31. 4 ; Psa. 34. 15 ; Prov. 5. 21 ; 15. 3 ; Jer. 16. 17 ; 
32. 19. 8 Psa. 139. 12 ; Amos 9. 2, 3 ; Heb. 4. 13. 



20. Shall they die— -Bather, they die. 
Shall be troubled — Literally, Are 
shaken, as by an earthquake, or smitten, 
as by the nocturnal attack of an en- 
emy. Hengstenberg sees here an al- 
lusion to the destruction of the Egyp- 
tians at midnight, (Ex:od. xi, 5,) which 
also is the view of the Targum. The 
mighty shall be taken away — Liter- 
ally, t/uy take away the mighty — they, 
the mysterious agents so often intro- 
duced in this book — invisible and silent. 
Without hand — Literally, "not by 
hand;" as in Lam. iv, 6, "no hands at- 
tacked her," that is, Sodom. (See note 
vii, 3.) Compare Dan. viii, 25. 

/? The unerring righteousness of the 
divine government is made both possible 
and necessary by the omniscience op 
God. All men, with all their deeds, are 
naked and open before him, and he needs 
no inquisition in (rrder to form and pro- 
nounce a righteous judgment, (21-24.) 
"He cannot, therefore, through ignorance, 
punish the innocent nor the guilty beyond 
their true demerit." — Scott. 

22. Shadow of death — Used here, 
as elsewhere, in the same association 
with darkness, (iii, 5; x, 21; xxviii, 
3,) for the darkness of sheol. In all 
God's creation — even in sheol — there 
is no veil of darkness that can hide the 
sinner. Deeds of darkness, like the 
seed of certain plants, are by nature's 
ordinance winged against concealment 
or final destruction. The wish on the 
part of the evil doer to hide sin involves 
an acknowledgment that there is just- 
ice over the creation, and points to an 
everlasting contest between the Su- 
preme will to detect aud the human in- 
terest to conceal, as John Foster shows 
in a thoughtful discourse on this text. 
(Broadrntad Lee. i, 167-175.) 



212 



JOB. 



23 For he will not lay upon man more 
than right; that he should 8 enter in- 
to judgment with God. 24 l He shall 
break m pieces mighty men 9 without 
number, and set others in their stead. 
25 Therefore he knoweth their works, 
and he overturneth them in the night, 
ho that they are "destroyed. 26 He 
striketh them as wicked men " in the 



8Heb. go. tfDan. 2. 21. 9Heb. without 

searching out. 10 Heb. crushed. HHeb. 

in the place of beholders. 

23. For he will not lay upon 
man more — Literally, For not again 
(or repeatedly) doth he set thought upon 
man, (or, he doth not long regard man ; 
same meaning of liy, as in Gen. xlvi, 
29,) that he may go to God in judgment. 
" A single thought of God, without the 
uttering of a word, is enough to sum- 
mon the whole world to judgment." 
— Wordsworth. Elihu has possibly in 
mind the complaints of: Job that God 
refused to enter into judgment with 
him, and reminds him of another phase 
of the painful subject, to wit, that be- 
fore he is aware God may bring him 
into judgment. 

24. Without number— npri'k^ 

Without searching. God needs no proc- 
ess of investigation that he may dis- 
cern, sever, and "break in pieces" the 
guilty. 

y Guided by unerring wisdom God 
goeth forth with the hand of an almighty 
one against the mighty, and suddenly 
crushes them in the presence of many be- 
holders. His omniscience and his impar- 
tial love of his creatures are guarantees 
that his omnipotent power shall not 
err in the allotment of good andevil,25-30. 

25. Therefore — A logical inference 
from verse 23, aud the central thought 
of verse 24, that God acts without pro- 
longed examination. In the night — 
Sudden is his work of retribution, for 
he overturneth the wicked in a night. 
Or, night may be the grammatical ob- 
ject of the verb TjSn, (compare Exod. 

x, 19, 1 Sam. x, 9, Job xxx, 15,) and 
be read, "He (God) turneth night ;" that 
is, God brings on night, in the sense of 
great calamity. 

26. In the open sight of others — 
Literally. They (the mighty) are pun- 



open sight of others ; 27 Because they 
"turned back 12 from him, and v would 
not consider any of his ways : 28 So 
that they w cause the cry of the poor to 
come unto him, and he x heareth the cry 
of the afflicted. 29 When he giveth 
quietness, who then can make trouble ? 
and when he hideth his face, who then 
can behold him ? whether it be done 



u 1 Sam. 15. 11. 12 Heb. from after him. 

v Psa. 28. 5 ; Isa. 5. 12. w Ohap. 35. 9 ; 

James 5. 4. a? Exod. 22. 23. 

ished like malefactors, in the place of 
beholders ; that is, where all can see, in 
order that they may take warning. 

27. Compare Psa. xxviii, 5. From 
him — The margin is more exact, and 
teaches us that God expects close fol- 
lowing. 

28. Theory of the poor — Apostasy 
and neglect of God culminated in the 
cruel treatment of the poor, which 
brings down upon the wicked his wrath. 
Cruelty unconsciously sends up to God 
for judgment the righteous cause of the 
maltreated ; and, as in the case of the 
oppressed Israelites, " God heareth 
their groaning." 

29. Make trouble— PEh\ Its mean- 
ing is not " condemn." (Delitzsch, Zock- 
ler,) but alarm, trouble. (Hitzig.) Nor is 
the object of the verb "trouble," God, as 
Hirtzel and others think, but the af- 
flicted. "When he gives his sorrowing 
ones rest, who then can trouble (them.) 
See note iii, 17. Whether against a 
nation — The purposes of God toward 
nations and individuals alike are, until 
their development, as hidden as is the 
face of Deity. God chastens a nation as 
a whole, or as individuals, the monarch 
as readily as the serf. 

30. Hypocrite — Ungodly. Lest, 
etc. — |Jp, that not, introduces this as well 

as the preceding clause. That the people 
be not ensnared ; literally, from snares of 
the people. 
Conclusion— The folly op Job's 

ACCUSATIONS OP GOD IS EVIDENT, AND, 
IF UNKEPENTED OF, SHOULD LEAD TO 
CONTINUED CHASTISEMENT. 31-37. 

If a human being be called to suffer the 
will of a wise, impartial, and loving God, 
instead of summoning God to judgment, or 
dictating Utopian schemes for the 'world's 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



213 



against a nation, or against a man only : 
30 That the hypocrite reign not, lest 
y the people be ensnared. 

31 Surely it is meet to be said unto 
God, 2 1 have borne chastisement, I will 
not offend any more : 32 That which 
J see not teach thou me : if I have done 
iniquity, I will do no more. 33 ^Should 
it be according to thy mind ? he will rec- 



V 1 Kings 12. 28, 30 ; 2 Kings 21. 9. z Dan. 

9. 7-14. 13 Heb. Should it be from with thee ? 



government, he should ro.ther confess his 
errors and sins, and seek enlightenment 
in regard to the hidden evil of his soul — 
the fruitful source of all his woes, 31-3?. 
31. Surely. . .not offend any more 
— Schuitens enumerates fifteen differ- 
ent explanations of this verse, and com- 
pares it- to a rock around which arise 
great waves of opinions. Surely it is 
meet, etc. — For does one say, indeed, un- 
to God, (Zockler, Hitzig,) giving to n the 
sense of an interrogative. Gesenius 
agrees with the authorized version. I 
have borne — ""fiNKO- Hirtzel, Welte, 

Zockler, Dillmann, supply "the yoke of 
punishment;" and Hitzig " the yoke of 
obedience." Delitzsch and Hahn read 
" I have been proud." I will not 

offend — ^iinX tib- The clause is 

terse, and may mean, " I w r ill not do 
evil," — (thus Delitzsch, Gesenius.) Hirt- 
zel and Hitzig read, ''I will not cast it 
off," that is, the yoke of punishment. 
Eichhorn, Ewald, and Umbreit give the 
expression an air of defiance — that the 
man declares himself called to expi- 
ate what he has not committed. Such 
a sense ill accords with the remainder 
of the declaration, which certainly is 
that of a docile penitent. Hengsten- 
berg's reading is substantially the same 
as that of Ewald. Zockler's, " Does any 
one say, indeed, to God, I expiate with- 
out doing wrong ? " etc., is less excep- 
tionable than that of Eichhorn, etc., but 
it is open to similar objections, not the 
least of which is that it is equivocal 
and feeble. This " compendious moral 
confession " must be a harmonious 
whole, (Delitzsch,) and may best be 
read. Surely to God it should be said, I 
have borne it, (punishment,) / will not be 
•perverse; which agrees with Conant. 
The Arabs have a proverb that "every 



ompense it, whether thou refuse, or 
whether thou choose ; and not I : there- 
fore speak what tho.u knowest, 34 Let 
men 14 of understanding tell me, and let 
a wise man hearken unto me. 35 a Job 
hath spoken without knowledge, and 
his words were without wisdom. 36 My 
18 desire is that Job may be tried unto the 
end, because of his answers for wicked 



14 Hebrew, of heart. a Chapter 35. 16. 

15 Or, My father, let Job be tried. 



one who offends becomes a security," 
that is, is bound over to punishment. 

32. That which I see not — Hjfa, 

without, beyond: — that which lies be- 
yond my vision. The expression points 
to latent sins — unknown iniquity. The 
soul is a darkened chamber that hides 
its own uncleanness. The light of the 
divine Spirit alone discloses the hidden 
domains of evil — the man of corrup- 
tion to his own quickened conscience. 
" Moses well calls sin a secret thing, 
whose greatness no mind can compre- 
hend. For as the wrath of God is, and 
as death is, so also is sin, an inconceiv- 
able infinite." — Luther, on Psa. xc, 8. 
The reader is referred to Sermons, in 
loc, by Leighton and Tillotson. 

33. According to thy mind — This 
verse is exceedingly obscure. It may 
be read : Shall he repay it (thy do- 
ings) according to thy mind, that thou 
dost refuse. But thou must choose, and 
not I; then what thou knowest, speak. 
In murmuring at his lot, Job has com- 
plained of the ordering of God's prov- 
idence. If he is not satisfied with the 
divine scheme, let him take the respon- 
sibility of proposing a better one. A 
pertinent rebuke to grumblers of every 
grade. Refuse — flDNO- The sense 

will be made more intelligible by the 
insertion either of the words " thy lot," 
" fate," or " suffering." See the same 
verb in chap, vii, 16, and xlii, 6. 

34. Let men, etc. — Rather, men of 
understanding will say to me, even the 
wise man who hears me, etc. 

35. Job . . . without knowledge, 
etc. — Such might be the purport of 
what wise men would say. 

36. My desire — The word "OX, 

which also signifies " my father," is 



214 



JOB. 



men. 37 For he addeth b rebellion un- 
to his sin, he clappeth his hands among 
us, and multiplieth his words against 
God. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
LIHU spake moreover, and said, 



E 



& 1 Sam. 15. 23 ; Isa. 1. 19, 20. a Chap. 9. 17 ; 

10. 7: 16. 17. &Chap. 21. 15; 34. 9. lOr, by 



probably cognate with the root, J-QN, 

"to desire," and is correctly rendered 
in the text. In the Arabic, to the pres- 
ent time, the vernacular abi is an ex- 
pression for importunate imploring, and 
is kindred to abghi, a word used to ex- 
press more moderate desire. Delitzsch, 
in foe., devotes some five pages to a 
learned treatise on this word. Unto 
the end — The phrase nVJ *!]} may ex- 
press either duration or degree of trial, 
or both ; in the same manner as elr to 
7ravTE?ulg, "to the uttermost," of Heb. 
vii, 25, may be interpreted either of 
completeness or duration. For — After 
the manner of wicked men. They use 
the same arguments, and utter the same 
complaints. 

37. For he addeth rebellion — 
The root idea of y£>5), ''rebellion," is, 

"break from," "sever." The more 
Job murmurs, the more he becomes 
alienated from God. The danger is 
that he will completely apostatize from 
God. That Job may, if possible, be 
saved, it is desirable that he be tried to 
the utmost, or "till eternity," (Fiirst,) 
if need be. Olappeth — An expres- 
sion of contempt, same as in chapter 
xxvii, 23. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Elihu's Third Discourse. 
1. Elihu spake moreover — Job 

has made himself more righteous than 
God, in maintaining that he had not 
received his deserts. His claims of 
merit and reward for righteousness are 
met by the consideration that God is 
too elevated to be benefited by the vir- 
tue or harmed by the vice of man. Hu- 
man actions redound to the good or ill of 
man himself. And yet God is not in- 
different to the doings of men, though 
in times of suffering he may not hear 



2 Thinkest thou this to be right, 
that thou saidst, a My righteousness is 
more than God's? 3 For b thou saidst, 
What advantage will it be unto thee? 
and, What profit shall I have, * if I be 
cleansed from my sin ? 4 2 1 will answer 
thee, and c thy companions with thee. 



it more than by my sin? 2 Heb. I will re- 
turn to thee toords. c Chap. 34. 8. 



their empty cries for help. They are 
not heard because they are wanting in 
humility and faith, not because God is 
not a moral governor of the universe. 

Job's notion that man is in no 
way benefited by his piety is erro- 
NEOUS, 2-16. 

First half — Man's righteousness 
IS TOO imperfect to postulate claims 
upon God : if God reward at all, it 
is a pure gratuity, 2-8. 

a. The thesis already anticipated 
(xxxiv, 9) is here formulated by a series 
of questions, 2-4. " There (xxxiv, 9) 
Elihu censured the complaint as an ar- 
raignment of the justice of God. Here 
he takes it in another point of view, 
namely, as laying God under obliga- 
tion." — Scott. 

2. My righteousness is more than 
God's — The Septuagint renders this 
clause, "I am righteous before the 
Lord." This accords better with the 
actual statements of Job, although the 
English Version agrees with the Vul- 
gate, and is now accepted by many. 
See note on chapter iv, 17. Delitzsch 
makes it a question, "Saidst thou," etc. 
The sentiment that Elihu attributes to 
Job may be, that he had been more just 
to God than God had been to him. 

3. What profit... my sin — Liter- 
ally, What shall I gain more than by 
my sin ? In ix, 22 and xxi, 23-26 Job 
had seemed to say that the perfect and 
the wicked are alike to God. In Eli- 
hu's remembrance these unguarded 
statements assume the form of a com- 
parison between the gains from virtue 
and the profits from sin. 

b. God is self-sufficient in his infinite 
exaltation, and consequently cannot be 
benefited or injured by the moral acts of 
men : the consequences of our actions are 
confined to ourselves or our fellows. " Good 
and evil cannot affect God; if they are. 
distinct things, as Job, who is no Panthe- 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



215 



5 d Look unto the heavens, and see : and 
behold the clouds which are higher than 
thou. 6 If thou sinnest, what doest 
thou e against him? or if thy transgres- 
sions be multiplied, what doest thou un- 
to him ? 7 f If thou be righteous, what 
givest thou him ? or what receiveth he 
of thine hand ? 8 Thy wickedness may 

rfChap. 22. 12. eProv. 8. 36; Jer. 7. 19. 

/Chap. 22.2,3; Psa. 16. 2; Prov. 9. 12; Rom. 
11. 35. 

ist, would admit, they must have distinct 
effects; and these effects, not reaching God, 
must be on man, on the man who does 
good or evil." — Davidson. Vers. 5-8. 

5. Look unto the heavens — The 
infinite greatness of God is feebly 
shadowed forth by the heavens, the 
work of his hands. " Job's weak and 
foolish attack on the divine righteous- 
ness makes shipwreck of the glory of 
the divine nature, as manifested in the 
works of creation." — Hengstenberg. 
Higher than the heavens, God is too 
high to gain by the virtue of man or 
to lose by his vice. 

6, 7. What receiveth he of thine 
hand — Independent and above all hu- 
man conduct, he is under obligations 
to none ; a point that had been reached 
before in the argument. "The all-suf- 
ficient One does not need man, and it 
is therefore foolish in us to demand, 
and fume, and murmur." " When God 
crowns our merits, he crowns solely 
his own gifts." — St. Augustine. See 
notes on vii, 20 ; xxii, 2, 3. 

8. Thy wickedness . . . son of man 
— The original reads more tersely, For 
a man like thyself is thy wickedness; 
and for a son of man thy righteousness. 
Man, and not God, loses or gains ac- 
cording as man is wicked or righteous. 
The comment of Clement, in one of his 
homilies, is befitting : " Him they profit 
nothing, but they save themselves: him 
they injure not, but they are destroyed." 

Second half — Piety (so called) 

THAT CALLS FORTH NO RESPONSIVE BEN- 
EFIT, IS UNREAL AND WORTHLESS, IN 
THAT IT IS EXTORTED FROM THE SOUL OF 
MAN BY SUFFERING, 9-16. 

a. The objection of Job, stated in EU- 
hus own language, (verse 9,) thai the 
prayers of human sufferers are unan- 
swered of God, Elihu refutes by the sug- 



hurt a man as thou art ; and thy right- 
eousness may profit the son of man. 

9 g By reason of the multitude of op- 
pressions they make the oppressed to cry: 
they cry out by reason of the arm of the 
mighty. 10 But none saith, Q Where is 
God my maker, ' who giveth songs in 
the night ; 1 1 Who k teacheth us more 



cExod. 2. 
*Psa. 42. 8; 
94. 12. 



chap. 34. 28. h Isa. 51. 13. 

6; 149. 5; Acts 16. 25.- — k Psa. 



gestion that they have in them no more 
moral element than the cries of the brute, 
and that, too, notwithstanding God has so 
richly endowed the wicked with faculties 
for love, trust, and worship ; and, conse- 
quently, God is under no moral obliga- 
tions to hear. The reason why they are 
not heard lies in the oppressed themselves, 
9-14. 

9. By reason. . .they make the 
oppressed to cry — The correct read- 
ing is, Because of the multitude of oppres- 
sions they cry out. A statement Job 
had made, (xxiv, 12,) with the addi- 
tional remark that God paid no heed to 
the outrage. 

10, But none saith — But they do 
not say. The reason that they are not 
heard is, that their cry has no element 
of faith or regard for God, in this re- 
spect resembling the instinctive cries 
of beasts and birds. My maker — 

••Kty. The plural form does not so much 

express " excellency " as point to the 
multiplicity and richness of the divine 
benefits, " so that the one is instar 
multorum," (Hengstenberg,) that is, the 
one God bestows as if he himself were 
many beings in one. Compare "thy 
Creator " (plural form) in Eccles. xii, 1 . 
Songs in the night — As with Paul 
and Silas at midnight in prison. Acts 
xvi, 25. The Talmud gives a pleasing 
allegory entitled "The Songs of the 
Night." "As David in his youthful 
days was tending his flocks on Beth- 
lehem's fertile plains, the Spirit of the 
Lord descended upon him, and his 
senses were opened, and his under- 
standing enlightened, so that he could 
understand the songs of the night. 
The heavens proclaimed the glory of 
God, the glittering stars formed one 
general chorus, their harmonious •" 



216 



JOB. 



than the beasts of the earth, and mak- 
eth us wiser than the fowls of heaven ? 

12 ' There they cry, but none giveth an- 
swer, because of the pride of evil men. 

13 m Surely God will not hear vanity, 
neither will the Almighty regard it. 

14 "Although thou say est thou shalt not 



I Prov. 1. 28. m Chap. 27. 9 ; Prov. 

Isa. 1. 15; Jer. 11. 11. ?! Chap. 9. 11.— 



15. 29; 
-o Psa. 



ody resounded upon earth, and the 
sweet fulness of their voices vibrated 
to its utmost bounds. "Light is the 
countenance of the Eternal," said the 
setting sun. "I am the hem of his 
garment," responded the soft and rosy 
twilight. The clouds gathered them- 
selves together and said, " "We are his 
nocturnal tent." ..." We bless thee 
from above," said the gentle moon. 
""We too bless thee," responded the 
stars ; and the lightsome grasshopper 
chirped, "Me too he blesses in the 
pearly dewdrop." — See Kitto'r Journal 
of S. L.,v\, 67 ; also, sermon, in loc, by 
H. Melvill. 

11. More than the beasts of the 
earth — The bestowment of reason and 
of a moral sense, and of the knowledge 
of God and of our duty, leads God to 
expect something more from us than 
brutish cries, such as those of the ra- 
ven, (Psa. cxlvii, 9,) or the thirsty cat- 
tle, (Joel i, 20,) or the hungry young 
lion. (Psa. civ, 21.) Their cries he 
hears, but not the cries of prayerless 
men. Fowls of heaven — See note 
xii, 7 ; xxviii, 7, 21. 

12. There — Or, under such circum- 
stances. None giveth answer — He 
answereth not these evil men (same 
as in verse 9) because of their pride. 
Elihu's imagination sees a multitude 
of ingrates, in the midst of whom is 
Job with his complaints and murmurs. 
To astonished Job, who repined be- 
cause God refused to hear him, Elihu 
points out his associates, his fellow 
sinners and sufferers, who also prayed 
when trouble came : — See ! " there they 
cry ! " and leaves him to draw his own 
moral. Like Aug. Comte, they would 
sooner pray to and worship " collec- 
tive man" than God, and appeal to God 
only as a last resource. It is instruc- 
tive to see a Herbert Spencer dismiss 
"the religion of humanity," held by 



see him, yet judgment is before him ; 
therefore "trust thou in him. 15 But 
now,because it is not so, 3 he hath p vis- 
ited in his anger; yet 4 he knoweth it 
not in great extremity : 16 q Therefore 
doth Job open his mouth in vain ; he 
multiplieth words without knowledge. 

37. 5, G. 3 That is, God. p Psa. 89. 32. 

4 That is, Job. g Chap. 34. 35, 37 ; 38. 2. 



the great sceptic, " as countenanced 
neither by induction nor deduction;" 
in all probability destined himself to be 
dismissed in like manner by some lead- 
ing sceptic of the future. 

1 3 Vanity — That is, a vain and 
empty cry, one that has no spiritual 
element. 

14. Although. . .trust thou in him 
— Read, much less when thou say est thou 
beholdest him not ! (Chap, xxiii, 8.) The 
cause is before him ; therefore wait thou 
on (or for) him. Judgment — The 
cause, jwi, neglected of men, is not 

neglected of God. It is before him. 

b. A specific and sufficient reason for 
Job why his prayers are not heard is, 
that his speeches are dogmatic, vain, and 
foolish, 15, 16. 

15. But now... great extremity 
— But now, because his anger visits not, 
nor strictly marks transgression. Com- 
pare Psa. cxxx, 3. Extremity— &Q, 

pash, iniquity, or transgression. This in- 
terpretation of this doubtful word, 
which appears but once in the Scrip- 
tures, accords with the Septuagint and 
the Vulgate, and is adopted by Hirt- 
zel, Conant, Penan, Noyes, etc. It is 
probably an abbreviated form of the 
Hebrew w r ord for transgression, (y'KJQ,) 

a word Elihu has already used against 
Job. See xxxiv, 37. Delitzsch and Dill- 
mann derive it from the Arabic, the for- 
mer making it to signify "sullenness," 
the latter, either folly or arrogance. 

Delitzsch, whom Zockler calls "one 
of the weightiest opponents of the gen- 
uineness of the whole Elihu section," 
here makes an important admission, 
that "even at the close of the third 
speech of Elihu, the Arabic, and in 
fact Syro- Arabic colouring common to 
this section, with the rest of the book, 
is confirmed ;" while, on the other hand, 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



217 



E 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
L1HU alf>o proceeded, and said, 
2 Suffer me a little, and I will show 



1 Heb. that there are yet words for God. 



he urges that we miss the bold original 
figures which, up to chapter xxxi, fol- 
lowed like waves upon one another ; 
and that w r e perceive a deficiency of 
skill, as now and then between Kohel- 
eth (in Solomon's Songs) and Solo- 
mon. This supposed defect of genius 
in the first speeches of Elihu, Zockler 
adequately meets by the suggestion 
that Elihu is now the preacher of re- 
pentance, speaking as plainly, simply, 
and with as little art as possible. Soon 
he shall stand forth the " eulogist and 
glorifier of God, surpassing the former 
speakers in the power, loftiness, and 
adornment of his discourse; nay, even 
rivaling in this respect the representa- 
tion of Jehovah himself." See Excur- 
sus VII, page 208. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
Elihu's Fourth and Last Discourse, 
chapters xxxvi, xxxvii. 
1. Elihu also proceeded — Elihu 
has thus far made the same number of 
addresses as each of the three friends, 
with the exception of Zophar. Jewish 
commentators have remarked that he 
might properly have stopped here, but 
the penitent silence of Job encourages 
him to proceed. Thus far his object 
has been to correct several errors and 
misapprehensions into which Job had 
fallen ; he now proposes to take a more 
specific view of the object of divine 
chastisement. God's infinite nature, 
his almightiness, he says, manifests it- 
self in caring more particularly for the 
righteous. Because of their like moral 
nature, he subjects all human beings 
to discipline, that the piecious may be 
separated from the vile. Suffering 
develops character : the good it makes 
better, the bad, worse: until, at last, the 
latter die prematurely the death of the 
most abandoned. Thus it appears that 
the general course of God's providence 
declares for righteousness. Therefore, 
if Job heed not the divine visitation, 
he has reason to deprecate the divine 
wrath, whose angry mutterings he 



thee 1 that I have yet to speak on God's 
behalf. 3 I will letch my knowledge 
a from afar, and will ascribe '"right- 



ed Prov. 2. 4, 5. b Jer. 12. 1 ; Dan. 9. 7, 14. 



may already hear in the distant cloud, 
(verse 18.) This leads Elihu to speak 
of the power of God in nature, whose 
beneficence, no less displayed than his 
justice, declares him not only a right- 
eous, but a gracious governor of the 
w r orld. A peculiarity of this and of the 
other speeches of Elihu, Delitzsch no- 
tices, namely, that "they demand of 
Job penitential submission, not by ac- 
cusing him of coarse, common sins, as 
the three have done, but because even 
the best of men suffer for hidden moral 
defects, which must be perceived by 
them, lest they perish on their account. 
Elihu here does for Job just what, in 
Bunyan, the man in the interpreter's 
house does when he sweeps the room, 
so that Christian had been almost 
choked with the dust that flew about." 
The providence of God is indeed 
incomprehensible, even as job had 
urged; but its general tendencies 
are unmistakably disclosed in the 

PRESENT, THOUGH PARTIAL, MUNDANE 

scheme, xxxvi, xxxvii. 

" There is a point within man on 
which suffering rests its base, sin; 
there is a point within God, indicated 
by all his works, from which it comes 
as source, goodness ; the two together 
sufficiently explain it [suffering] and 
general Providence for man's life here 
below." — A. B. Davidson. 

First Division — The providence of 
God in the moral world, chiefly 
AS MADE known through the econ- 
omy OF SUFFERING, 2-21. 

Introduction — Elihu has yet much 
more to say in vindication of the ways of 
God, 2-4. 

The three preceding speeches were 

introduced by |JW, " and he answered," 

the present speech, with f]p»l, " and he 

added," showing that Elihu intends it 
as a resumption and continuation of the 
main argument of his other speeches. 

3. From afar — From out the wide 
. domain of the divine workings, both in 



218 



JOB. 



eousness to ray Maker. 4 For truly ray 
words shall not be false : he that is per- 
fect in knowledge is with thee. 5 Be- 
hold, God is mighty, and despiseth not 
any : c he is mighty in strength and 
2 wisdom. 6 He preserveth not the life 
of the wicked : but giveth right to the 

cChap. 9. 4; 12. 13, 16; 37. 23; Psa. 99.4. 
2Heb. heart. 3 Or, afflicted. 

providence and in nature. Elihu will 
take a far-reaching view. 

4. Perfect in knowledge — Liter- 
ally, knowledges. In the theodicy which 
he proposes to Job he claims faultless- 
ness and clearness*of perception. (De- 
litzsch.) The use of the same phrase 
in xxx vii, 16, of Deity, leads some to 
ascribe this attributive here also to G-od. 

a. The subject considered ab- 
stractly, 5-15. 

Strophe a — Elihu proceeds to lay down 
some general principles involved in the 
distribution of the allotments of men; fi?'st, 
denying that God is the promoter of the 
interests of the wicked; on the contrary, he 
has committed himself to the final and 
eternal promotion of the righteous, 5-7. 

5. Despiseth not any — The small 
and the great are alike to God. He de- 
ipises not the cause of the lowliest; they 
also are the work of his hand. God 
cannot be otherwise than just. Grace, 
justice, and condescending love are no 
less the attributes of God than omnipo- 
tence and sovereignty. Mohammedan- 
ism, in almost unceasing doxology, ex- 
tols the one attribute of God, " God is 
great ; " the religion of Christ, extols 
the attributes of grace and love. "All 
the attributes unite in most blessed 
harmony," as Dachsel happily remarks; 
" since they are all rays of the same 
sun, they cannot be arrayed against 
each other." Strength and wisdom 
— Literally, force of heart; heart pow- 
er, which finally culminated in the 
cross. God is mighty, not only in 
power of arm, but power of heart. To 
allow leb its legitimate meaning, heart, 
(though it often means understanding,) 
would accord with the scope of this 
chapter. The man of God worships a 
being of heart, not of cold understand- 
ing merely, but of warm throbbings 
toward all whom he has redeemed. 

G. He preserveth not the life — 



3 poor. 7 d He withdraweth not his eyes 
from the righteous : but c with kings are 
they on the throne ; yea, he doth es- 
tablish them for ever, and they are ex- 
alted. 8 And f if they be bound in fet- 
ters, and be holden in cords of affliction ; 
9 Then he showeth them their work, 



d Psalm 33. 18 ; 34. 15. e Psalm 113. 

/Psalm 107. 10. 



In allusion to Job's question, (xxi, 7.) 
" Wherefore do the wicked live ? " See 
also chap, xxiv, 22, with note. The verb 

r^n* 1 will admit the reading of Gesenius 

and Furst: — "He prospereth not the 
wicked." It is not because of their 
wickedness that prosperity attends 
their ways. The economy that God 
has established tends to the overthrow 
of evil doers no less than to the exalta- 
tion of the righteous, a thought Elihu in 
the next verse proceeds to expand. 

1. But with kings. . .are exalted 
— Read, And (even) with kings on the 
throne he makes them sit forever, and they 
are exalted. The moral elevation that 
attends the life of the righteous, though 
in another sphere, is not inferior to that 
of royalty. It emblems forth their fu- 
ture exaltation — of which Elihu uncon- 
sciously speaks — when they shall be- 
come "kings and priests unto God." 
The subsequent allusion to fetters leads 
Grotius to think that the speaker has 
in view the advancement of Joseph 
from his prison to a throne. 

Strophe b — The sufferings the right- 
eous experience are intended, to be resto- 
rative, and at the same time to promote 
temporal and spiritual prosperity ; fail- 
ing of this, they entail destruction, 8-12. 

8. Fetters and cords are used in a 
figurative sense. Arab writers, cited 
by Hitzig, formulate the thought thus : 
— "Sickness is God's prison on the 
earth." However lofty the elevation 
of the righteous, he is not beyond the 
afflictive hand of God; nay, quite as 
certainly as upon the lowliest shall 
the gathered clouds of adversity burst 
upon the heads of the highest, in or- 
der that their souls may also be sev- 
ered and won from the deleterious in- 
fluences of worldly prosperity. These 
glowing words (verses 8-12) have 
an oblique reference to Job. In the 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



219 



and their transgressions that they have 
exceeded. 10 L 'IIe openelh also their 
ear to discipline, and commandeth tnat 
they return from iniquity. 1 1 If they 
obey and serve him, they shall h spend 
their days in prosperity, and their years 

O Chap. 33. 16,23. h Chap. 21. 13; Isaiah 1. 

19, 20. 4Heb. they shall pass away by the 

view of Elihu affliction is the voice of 
God to the soul, " not in anger, nor in 
wrath," but in love. The contrast be- 
tween the views of Elihu and those of 
" the friends," as to the design of afflic- 
tion, is most marked. 

9. That they have exceeded — 
The Authorized Version is ambiguous ; 
the literal reading is. " They show 
themselves strong." In other words, 
God declares to them that they act 
proudly, (against him ;) — one of the dan- 
gers of extreme prosperity. 

10. Openeth. . .ear — As in xxxiii, 
16. Iniquity — Vanity, jlN. Its root 

idea is to be ''empty," "worthless." 
See note on chap, v, 12, and xxi, 19. 
Elihu, with profound insight, more like 
that of the Xew Testament, (1 John 
ii. 15-17.) penetrates to the root of 
Job's trouble, and finds it to be the 
incipient love of an "empty" world, 
(worldliness,) — the first side-steppings 
of a soul that otherwise retains its 
faith in God. 

1 1 . Prosperity — Literally, good, 
which is a more comprehensive term. 
Job, in describing the pious man's des- 
tiny, (xxi, 25, ) declared that such an one 
had not enjoyed the good, literally, " had 
not eaten in the good." Elihu now replies 
that the servants of God spend their 
days in the good, since such service is 
necessarily a well-spring of the true 
good. Pleasures — The original of 
this word, as also in Psa. xvi, 6, lit- 
erally signifies "pleasantnesses, "(plural 
form.) and, like the Latin amoena, points 
to joyous surroundings. Light "with- 
in one's own clear breast " shines be- 
yond and makes "bright day." (For 
illustration, see Milton's "Comus," lines 
360-390.) 

12. Without knowledge — See note 
on iv, 2 1 . They die without that knowl- 
edge of God which is the eternal weal 
of the soul. Or it may refer to the 



in pleasures. 12 But if they obey not, 
4 they shall perish by the sword, and they 
shall die without knowledge. 13 But 
the hypocrites in heart ' heap up wrath : 
they cry not when he bindeth them. 
14 k They 5 die in youth, and their life is 



sioord. iRom. 2. 5. k Chap. 15. 32; 22. 16; 

Psa. 55. 23. 5 Heb. their soul dieth. 



stupor which sin brings, an uncon- 
sciousness of deep guilt that in gen- 
eral beclouds the wicked when dying. 
" For there are no bands in their 
death." Psa,. lxxiii, 4. (See Merceix, 
Natural Goodness, sec. 2.) 

Strophe c — Hypocrisy of heart provokes 
the wrath of God — a wrath which is cu- 
mulative, since the soul defiantly resists 
the divine chastisement, 13-15. 

13. Hypocrites — The Hebrew hha- 
neph frequently means also "impure." 
In the opinion of some Elihu now speci- 
fies a third class. Heap up wrath — 
Thus Rosenmiiller, Carey, etc. Others, 
however, read cherish wrath, (against 
God.) But not the less do the " hypo- 
crites in heart," though they know it 
not, heap up wrath ; or, as the apostle 
expresses it, treasure up unto them- 
selves wrath against the day of wrath. 
Rom. ii, 5. " The judgments of God 
do not always follow crimes as thun- 
der doth lightning. . . . When the sun 
hath shined for the space of six hours 
upon their tabernacles we know not 
what clouds the seventh may bring. 
And when their punishment doth come, 
let them make their account in the 
greatness of their suffering to pay the 
interest of that respite which hath 
been given them." — Hooker, Sermon 
on John xiv, 27. They cry not, to 
God for pardon and help when " he 
bindeth them," (as in verse 8.) but add 
to their sins "hardness and impeni- 
tence of heart." 

14. They die — Better, as in margin, 
their soul dieth. (Hengstenberg, Hitzig, 
etc.) Soul is here in contrast with life 
in the second clause. " Passages like 
it in the Proverbs would support the 
idea of spiritual death." — Tayler Lewis. 
Hypocrisy enervates, undermines, and 
destroys man's moral being no less 
certainly than licentiousness does his 
physical being. The divine mind may 



220 



JOB. 



among the 6 unclean. 15 He delivereth 
the 7 poor in his affliction, and openeth 
their ears in oppression. 16 Even so 
would he have removed thee out of the 



6 Or, sodomites; Deut. 23. 17. 7 Or, afflicted. 

^Psa. 18. 19; 31.8; 118.5. 

class hypocrisy and licentiousness more 
closely together than we would deem 
possible, even as the hypocrite and 
catamite are here linked together in 
oneness of spiritual death. The un- 
clean — Or as in margin. Literally, 
the word means " those consecrated to 
the service of heathen deities." It is 
a sad comment on idolatrous worship 
that it should enlist for its support the 
prostitution not only of women, but 
of men. The D^lp, "saints," are 
those devoted to the worship of God : — 
the D^CHp, the unclean, are those de- 
voted to the worship of gods. The 
slight divergence of the words (the 
difference of a vav, i) points back to a 
time when a divergence in the ob- 
jects of worship took place, while still 
the philological link, at least, was one of 
consecration. The indescribable deg- 
radation developed through the wor- 
ship of idols sets forth the heinousness 
of all vice which builds upon the per- 
version of true faith. Elihu introduces 
these degraded beings simply to point 
the moral that the seemingly righteous, 
whose true character affliction dis- 
closes, die, like these catamites, a pre- 
mature and ugly death. The mascu- 
line vice referred to in the text spread 
its desolating blight over tbe most en- 
lightened nations of antiquity, as still 
appears from the classics. The Per- 
sians, according to Herodotus, (i, 135,) 
learned it from the Greeks. 

15. In his affliction — Or, by his af- 
fliction. The sanctified endurance of 
suffering becomes the instrument for 
its removal. Openeth their ears — 
by means of distress. He " openeth 
their ear" that it may hearken to his 
voice and obey his will. 

(3 An application to Job of the 
preceding principles, enforced by a 
pointed exhortation, 16-21. 

Strophe a — An affectionate God seeks 
to lure tlie soul out of the narrow straits 
of trouble into the broad and rich ex- 



strait ' into a broad place, where there is 
no straitness ; and 8 that which should 
be m set on thy table should be full of " fat- 
ness. 17 But thou hast fulfilled the 



Heb. the 



Psa. 23. 5. 



periences of spiritual prosperity : but if 
the soul prove contumacious against God, 
and be filled with the counsel of the wicked, 
then there is danger of destruction, from 
which no ransom shall avail to deliver, 
16-18. 

16. Even so . . . thee — Literally, 
" God also allures [urges] thee from the 
jaws of trouble into a broad place, [with] 
no straitness beneath it," which stands 
as a figure for greater glory and hap- 
piness. The rendering of the Author- 
ized Version is substantially that of 
Furst, Delitzsch, and TJmbreit. On 
improbable grounds Ewald makes un- 
bounded prosperity the subject of the 
sentence ; prosperity having had the 
effect to seduce Job from hearkening 
to the voice of afflictions. Out of 
the strait — "fiPSD, literally, from the 

mouth of trouble. Distress is conceived 
of as a monster out of whose mouth 
God is seeking to deliver Job.' Table 
— A well-filled table among the Orient- 
als was an image of the highest earthly 
bliss. It is also frequently employed 
in the Scriptures to denote spiritual 
enjoyment and salvation. Psa. xxii, 
26-29; xxiii, 5; Isa. xxv, 6; Iv, 1-5, 
etc. Kich {Nineveh i, 117) describes 
the table at which he sat with the 
Pasha as an oblong tray, with feet 
raising it a few inches from the floor. 
Such dishes as it would not contain 
were put beside it on the ground. 

11. But thou hast fulfilled— But 
if thou art filled with the judgment of 
the wicked, then will judgment and jus- 
tice take hold, (on thee,) or, as others 
read, " hold fast together," that is, be- 
ing closely joined, they will prove in- 
separable. For him whose mind is 
filled with the judgment, pi, of the 

wicked, w r ho makes " answers for 
wicked men," (xxxiv, 36,) judgment, 
pj, and justice wait ; an element of re- 
tributive justice, like for like. "He 
whom thou presumest to judge with 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



221 



judgment of the wicked : 9 judgment and 
justice take hold on thee. l§ Because 
there is wrath, beware lest he take thee 
away with his stroke : then ° a great ran- 



9 Or, judgment and justice should uphold 
thee. 



words will judge thee indeed." — 
Schlottmann. 

18. Because there is wrath. . .his 
stroke — This passage has given much 
trouble to critics, of whose readings 
some are unspeakably absurd. The 
real difficulty lies in the word stroke, 
(pSJ^i sephek,) which is translated by 

some, "abundance;" thus, (Fiirst,) "He 
may not seduce thee with abundance,'' 
making G-od indirectly an agent of evil. 
On the other hand, Gesenius renders it 
"punishment;" while Fiirst gives the 
first meaning of its root, as in chap, 
xxxiv, 26, "to strike." Rosenmiiller, A. 
Clarke, and Noyes, virtually adopt the 
reading of the text. Carey thinks that 
the expression " take away " is intend- 
ed to correspond with the same word, 
" remove," in verse 16, with the mean- 
ing, God has not, as yet, by his mercy 
urged you out (^JVDn) of your distress, 

(verse 16;) take care that in his pro- 
voked wrath he does not altogether urge 
you away (TJJVD'') with a stroke. The 

preposition 2, with, (a stroke,) may be 

rendered against; which leads some 
(Conant) to ascribe the anger to Job, 
and to read the clause, "For beware 
lest anger stir thee up against chastise- 
ment." But the use of the same word 
(TOPI, " wrath ") in chap, xix, 29, where 

it is spoken of God, would rather point 
to a rebuke on the part of Elihu. The 
very wrath Job threatened against 
" the friends " is that which he himself 
has reason to apprehend unless he, too, 
exercise proper caution. The mutter- 
ing of the approaching storm may have 
given special point to the exhortation, 
and Elihu may have been emboldened 
to greater severity of address than 
would otherwise have seemed justifia- 
ble. " See," he seems to say, " the lijjht- 
nings.God's messenger s.already endorse 
the message of God's servant." Ran- 
iio xi-^Kopher ; same word as in chap. 



som cannot 10 deliver thee. 19 p Will 
he esteem thy riches ? no, not gold, nor 
all the forces of strength. 20 Desire 
not the night, when people are cut off in 



Psalm 49. 7. 



-10 Hebrew, turn thee aside. 
pPiov. 11. 4. 



xxxiii, 24, but used here in a modi- 
fied sense. No consideration either of 
wealth, honour, wisdom, or piety. (Ezek. 
xxxiii, 12, 13,) — no price that man can 
bring — will avail to deliver man when 
once under the retributive hand of 
God. Comp, chap, xxx, 24. Cannot 
deliver thee — The meaning of ntOJ 

T T 

in the niphil form is unquestionably, as 
in the margin, " to turn aside." Gese- 
nius renders the phrase, (Thes. 877,) 
"A great ransom cannot turn thee aside 
from the divine punishment; a form 
of speech," he says, " used of those 
who turn aside from the way to avoid 
peril." 

Strophe b — No resources of riches or 
might will suffice to redeem tJie soul out 
of God's hand; therefore long not for the 
night, and, above all things, pervert not 
the afflictions of God into occasions of sin, 
19-21. 

19. Will he esteem thy riches — 
On the supposition that betsar is a com- 
pound word, some (Zockler) read, "Shall 
thy crying put thee out of distress? 
and all the efforts of strength? " i. e., 
of thy strength. Gesenius, (Thesaurus, 
1069,) Renan, Noyes, Conant, Hitzig, 
etc., substantially agree with the En- 
glish version. Thus Hirtzel, " Will 
thy riches suffice ? not gold, nor all 
treasures of power!" a reading which 
quite determines that the preceding 
verse (18) must accord with the Au- 
thorized Version. According to Suidas, 
the Phoenicians represented their gods 
with purses of gold as the symbol of 
power. 

20. The night — Night is used figu- 
ratively for death, (xxxiv, 20, 25,) or for 
destruction heightened by night. Psa. 
xci, 5. It may mean his own death, or 
the retributive death of others; Job hav- 
ing spoken of night in the latter sense, 
so as possibly to awaken on the part 
of Elihu suspicions of malevolence, 
though unjustly. Cut off — Same as 
in ch. v. 26, and Psa. cii, 24, (literally, 



222 



JOB. 



their place. 21 Take heed, q regard not 
iniquity : for r this hast thou chosen 
rather than affliction. 

22 Behold, God exalteth by his pow- 
er : s who teacheth like him ? 23 'Who 
hath enjoined him his way ? or u who can 



<7 Psalm 66. 18. rSee Hebrews 11. 25. 

s Isaiah 40. 13,14; Romans 11. 34; 1 Corinthians 
2. 16. 1 Chap. 34. 13. 



" go np,") and here spoken in general of 
removal by death to sheol, the world 
beneath them, (thus Oonant and Carey,) 
or "beneath where the nations are," 
(Hitzig;) but better, as in xl, 12, in 
their place — the place of their power 
and pride. The latter clause of the 
verse explains the former. In sublime 
language (iii, 13-19) Job had expressed 
his desire that he might join the mighty 
dead; a description which must have 
profoundly impressed the youthful lis- 
tener Elihu. He now replies, Not for 
the night, not " for the going up of the 
nations," should Job long, (same as in 
vii, 2 ;) they are going up fast enough, — 
this "innumerable caravan that moves 
to that mysterious realm " of death, — 
without Job's panting to join them. 
Job's time to "be gathered" will come 
soon enough without all this ado. 

21. This hast thou chosen — Poor, 
weak human nature shrinks from chas- 
tisement, though it knows such to be 
divine and for its real good. But to 
choose iniquity rather than affliction is 
to act over again the folly of the Jews, 
who chose Barabbas rather than Christ. 
" There is more evil in the least sin than 
in the greatest affliction." — Henry. " In 
particular the closing verses of this di- 
vision (16-21) contain statements . . . 
such as occur in the like combination no- 
where in the Old Testament, and such 
as belong in truth to the profound- 
est utterances which the literature of 
the Old Testament has produced in 
the attempt to solve the mystery of af- 
fliction before the coming of Christ." — 
Zbckler. 

Second division — The Providence 

OF GOD IN" NATURE IS A PRAISEWOR- 
THY DISCLOSURE OF DIVINE WISDOM 

and power. Terse 22-xxxvii, 13. 

Strophe a — is transitional. The lofty 
working of the mighty God not only exalts 
him above all human blame, but calls upon 



say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? 24 Ke- 
member that thou v magnify his work, 
which men behold. 25 Every man 
may see it ; man may behold it afar off. 
26 Behold, God is great, and we w know 
him not, x neither can the number of his 



u Chapter 34. 10. v Psalm 92. 5; Revelation 

15. 3. w 1 Corinthians 13. 12. x Psalm 90. 2 ; 

102. 24, 27 ; Hebrews 1. 12. 

Job to unite with all bangs in a song of 
praise, 22-25. 

22. Behold — }jl introduces each of 
the three following strophes, (22-25, 
26-29, 30-33,) each of which contains 
four verses; which mode of division, to- 
gether with the similarity in the struct- 
ure of the verses, is thought to be ar- 
gument for an original poetical divis- 
ion of the book into strophes. God 
exalteth by his power — Better, God 
worketh loftily in his power. Elihu de- 
votes the rest of his discourse to in- 
stances of God's incomprehensible work- 
ing in nature, that he may convince Job 
of a like utter ignorance of the divine 
working in Providence. 

23. Who hath enjoined him his 
way — God is responsible to no one, 
(xxxiv, 13,) not to Job even, who, as 
Elihu thinks, is disposed to dictate to 
God his way. 

24. Which men behold — Which 
men sing. Instead of finding fault with 
God's ways, Job ought rather to extol 
His works, which elicit the admiration 
of all well-minded men. 

25. Every man may see it — The 
language of Adam in " Paradise Lost " 
(book xi) embodies the blended wonder 
and adoration implied in this spiritual 
word, hhazah : to see. 

I now 
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts 
Of glory, and far off his steps adore. 

Consult note on xix, 27. 

Strophe b — The infinitely exalted and 
eternal God displays his beneficence in the 
subtle elaboration of rain, a work which 
blends together wisdom and power, prov- 
idence and love, and which can be fully 
comprehended only by him who spreads 
out the clouds and sends forth the crash- 
ing thunder from the thick cloud, which 
is his pavilion, 26-29. 

26. Behold, God is great — The 
greatness of God is indicated by his 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



223 



years be searched out. 27 For he 
> maketh amall the drops of water: they 
pour down rain according to the vapour 
thereof ; 28 " Which the clouds do drop 
and distil upon man abundantly. 29 Al- 
so can any understand the spreadings of 



t/Psa. 147. 8. sProv. 3. 20. a Chap. 

11 Heb. the roots. 



unsearchableuess ana eternity. "Eli- 
hu shows that Job's allegation that he 
has been unrighteously handled, and 
his impeachment of God's righteous- 
ness, are contraventions of liis nature 
as manifested in creation. The omnip- 
otence and wisdom of God, which are 
every- where apparent in the universe, 
furnish a testimony to God's righteous- 
ness . . . Every witness, therefore, in 
nature to God's greatness as a Creator 
rises against an arraignment of God's 
righteousness. Whoso will bring a charge 
against God's justice must measure him- 
self with the divine omnipotence." — 
Wordsworth. 

27. Maketh small— Rather, draw- 
eth vp ; exhaleth {Dr. Clwrkc) through 
the process of evaporation. Accord- 
ing to the vapour thereof — Through 
his vapour-cloud, (Fiirst,) or from its va- 
pour, (Gesenius,) which Dr. T. Lewis 
renders in place of mist, in allusion to 
Gen. li, 6. Science still uses the same 
term " vapour-cloud " to designate the 
mysterious birthplace of the rain. The 
ancients looked upon rain not only as 
coming from their deity, (Aratus.) but 
as the special gift of God. [Herodotus, 
ii, 13.) The Talmud (in Taanith, ch. i) 
records an ancient saying of the Jews, 
that there be three keys which God 
hath reserved in his own hand, and 
hath not delivered to any minister or 
substitute, namely, the keys of life, 
and of rain, and of the resurrection 
of the dead. See notes on ch. v, 10, 11, 
and xxvi. 8. Man abundantly — Or 
the multitude of men, so widespread is 
the fall of rain. 

29 The spreadings of the cloud — 
The unfolding ( f the cloud (thunder- 
cloud) along the sky, as in 1 Kings 
xviii. 44, 45, where the swiftness with 
which the cloud spreads itself is, ac- 
cording to Maurer, compared to the 
movement of a hand " hither and 



the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle ? 

30 Behold, he u spreadeth his light upon 
it. and covereth n the bottom ol the sea. 

31 For b by them judgeth he the people ; 
he c giveth meat in abundance. 32 J With 
clouds he covereth the light ; and com- 



b Chap. 37. 13; 38. 23. c Psa. 136. 25; Acts 

14. 17. cZPsa. 147. 8. 



thither." For a like rendering of £?~I2, 

"spread," compare Psa. cv, 39; Ezek. 
xxvii, 7. See note on xxxvii, 16. The 
noise — Literally, "loud crashing" of 
thunder, which the poet represents as 
the crash of his tabernacle. The lof- 
ty imagination of Elihu conceived the 
thunder-cloud to be a booth, a tempo- 
rary dwellingplace of the Most High. 
The deepest blackness of the cloud 
would favour the comparison to a tent, 
for, made of black goatskin, tents 
were pre-eminently dark. {Cant, i, 5.) 
It is probable that the storm-cloud in 
which God finally revealed himself was 
already spreading upon the sky. 

Strophe c — The same wondrous provi- 
dence and power of God subordinate the 
lightnings, even, to the benefit and well- 
being of men, and at the same time to the 
punishment of evil doers, 30-33. 

30. Light upon it — More properly, 
light around himself. Covereth the 
bottom of the sea — Covereth (him- 
self) with the roots of the sea. Others 
read as in the text of Authorized Ver- 
sion. Job had spoken also of the roots 
of the mountains, (xxviii, 9,) and even 
of the roots of the human foot, (xiii, 27.) 
The sublime thought of the text weaves 
together celestial light and ocean depth 
to form fit garment for the Almighty. 
An old Orphic hymn has a like ex- 
pression : — 

Thou who holdest the roots of the sea, 
Thy dork -gleaming throne. 

31. By them (the lightning and the 
cloud) He ruleth the nations. The verse 
is parenthetical. The lightning is his 
sceptre, the fertilizing cloud his store- 
house of food. With the one he smites, 
with the other he blesses. 

32. With clouds. . .betwixt— Both 
hands he covereth over with light, and 
giveth it command against the adversary. 
According to Delitzsch, God appears 



224 



JOB. 



mandeth it not to shine by the cloud that 
cometh betwixt. 33 e The noise there- 
of showeth concerning it, the cattle also 
concerning 12 the vapour. 

e 1 Kings 18. 41, 45. 12 Heb. that which 

here under a military figure as a sling- 
er of lightnings, (light) The lightning, 
like a slinger's cord, he wraps around 
his hand that he may give it greater 
force iigainst the enemy. " It scorches 
the world, but does not hurt him [God] ; 
nay, rather, is the vesture and instru- 
ment of his power." — Wordsworth. 

33. The noise thereof . . . the va- 
pour — This is one of the most difficult 
passages in the Bible, on account of 
the ambiguity of every important word. 
Of the discordant readings, that of 
Ewald is now generally accepted: — 
" His thunder announces ECim; the cat- 
tle even, that he is approaching; " lit- 
erally, on the march. Some see in the 
allusion to cattle the instinctive appre- 
hension which the brute manifests at 
the approach of a storm, as both Virgil 
and Pliny had observed, (Georg., i, 374 ; 
Nat Hist, xviii, 87, 88.) The reading 
of Dillmann, Hitzig, etc., who for the 
most part follow Symmachus, is not 
so well sustained, to wit: "His alarm- 
cry announces concerning him, mak- 
ing wrath to rage against iniquity ;" 
essential to which is a change in the 
pomtmgofr6ijr^to rbyp'bvy against 

iniquity." The former of these Hebraic 
words — the accepted pointing of our text 
— we would prefer, and read as above, 
'•concerning Him who is coming up- 
ward," that is, that "He is approach- 
ing." Conant renders the second clause 
of the verse, — "to the herds, even of 
Him who is on high; " making HJp'O 

(whi. h others, as above, render "wrath ") 
the object rather than the subject of the 
verb. In explanation of these com- 
ments, the reader may here be reminded 
that the vowel points form no part of 
the original Hebrew text, but were first 
introduced about the seventh century 
of the Christian era, and since the com- 
pletion of the Talmud. For length- 
ened comment on the verse, the reader 
is referred to either Schultens, Dill- 
mann, or Conant. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

AT this also my heart trembleth, and 
_i_3_ is moved out of his place. 2 * Hear 
attentively the noise of his voice, and tho 



goeth up. 1 Heb. Hear in hearing. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

While yet the storm gathers along 
the sky, Elihu is led to speak of other 
phenomena of nature which also dis- 
play the power and wisdom of Grod. 
Everywhere appears a benevolent de- 
sign, even in the fearful lightning's path. 
God wields the forces of nature for the 
moral weal of man. Our ignorance of 
the simplest processes of nature (vers. 
14-19) should teach us calm acquies- 
cence in the divine will, for there is 
light in the darkest clouds. Men should, 
therefore, not withhold themselves from 
a doxology of praise (verse 23) to the 
terribly majestic Being whose acts 
never transcend the bounds of justice 
and of right. Humboldt, the consum- 
mate scientist, thus speaks of " the 
thirty-seventh chapter of the ancient, 
if not the antemosaic, Book of Job : — 
The meteorological processes which 
take place in the atmosphere, the for- 
mation and solution of vapour accord- 
ing to the changing direction of the 
wind, the play of its colours, the gen- 
eration of hail and of the rolling thun- 
der, are described with individualizing 
accuracy ; and many questions are pro- 
pounded which we, in the present state 
of our physical knowledge, may, indeed, 
be able to express under more scien- 
tific definitions, but scarcely to answer 
satisfactorily." — Cosmos, ii, 414. 

Strophe d. The thunder storm— through 
its lightnings gleaming even to the ends of 
the earth, while its thunders roll along 
the whole heaven — pre-eminently sj^eaks of 
the all-embracing poiver of God. In de- 
claring the awful greatness of God, it 
equally displays his goodness, which is 
the outgoing of his greatness, 1-5. 

1. At this — Literally, Because of this, 
the terror of the approaching storm. 
Is moved — Literally, Starts up. The" 
same Hebrew word is sometimes used 
in another form for the sudden leap of 
the locust. Lev. xi, 21. The graudeur 
of the following description of a thun- 
der storm is best seen by comparison 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



99i 



sound that goeth out of his mouth. 3 He 
directeth it under the whole heaven, and 
his 2 lightning unto the 3 ends of the 
earth. 4 After it a a voice roareth : ho 
thundereth with the voice of his excel- 



2 Heb. light. 3 Heb. icings of the earth. 

a Psa. 29. 3 ; 68. 33. 



with similar descriptions in the classics ; 
for instance, a scene in the Iliad, vii, 
470— ±8 2, in which a storm broke in up- 
on a scene of carousal : 

Humble they stood ! pale horror seized them 

all, 
While the deep thunder shook the aerial hall. 

The reader may be referred to the cele- 
brated but vastly inferior description giv- 
en in the Koran, (Sura ii, 1 8,) the beauty 
of which is said to have made the poet 
Lebid a follower of the false prophet. 

2. Attentively — The Hebrew text 
repeats the preceding word, as in the 
margin, and may be read, "Hear, 
hear." The sound — njSfl signifies, also, 
a murmur (thus Maurer) or a thought. 
" We spend our years as a tale," (as 
a thought.) Psa. xc, 9. The thunder 
was the voice, the thought, of God. 
In the startled language, " Hear, 
hear," Elihu directs attention to the 
low-voiced, muttering thunder rolling 
along the sky. 

3. He directeth— He letteth it (the 
thunder) loose; or, better yet, sendeth 
it forth. Unto the ends of the earth 
— " Wings " or " fringes " of the earth ; 
same as in chapter xxxviii. 13. The 
word might be rendered "boundaries," 
the same word in the Arabic (kanafa) 
being employed to express bounding. 
In Isa. xi, 12, and in Ezek. vii, 2, the 
word is associated with the numeral 
four, and is evidently used for the car- 
dinal points. Comp. Rev. vii, 1 ; xx, 8. 
In the view of Renan, the earth is here 
compared " to a carpet spread out ; its 
extremities being in some sort the bor- 
der of the carpet." The Greeks in the 
time ,of Eratosthenes, so Rosenmiil- 
ler states, (Bib. Geog., i. 3,) compired 
the shape of the earth to that of an 
outspread ddamys, or cloak. At one 
time Geseniua supposed that the He- 
brews had, in like manner, erred in 
taking the earth to be of a quadrangu- 
lar form. This opinion he alter ward 

Vol. Y.— 16 



lency ; and he will not stay them when 
his voice is heard. 5 God thundereth 
marvellously with his voice ; h great 
things doeth he, which we cannot com- 
prehend. 6 For c he saith to the snow, 



b Chap. 



9; 9. 10; 3d. 26; Rev. 15. 3. 
c Psa. 147. 16, 17. 



retracted by advancing the more cor- 
rect view, that the Hebrews regarded 
the four " ends of the earth " as equiv- 
alent to the four quarters of heaven. 
(See his Com. on Isa. xi, 12.) Winer, 
however, (Rwb., i, 340.) thinks it to be 
exceedingly doubtful that the Hebrews 
ever formed a fixed opinion as to the 
shape of the earth. His lightnings 
unto the ends of the earth — We 
have been assured by a celebrated 
Abyssinian traveller, that lie has seen 
flashes in that country extending from 
horizon to horizon, and which he could 
not estimate as under fifty or one hun- 
dred miles in length. — Sir Johx Her- 
SCHEL, in Encyc. Brit, 8th ed., xiv, 662. 
4. After it a voice roareth — The 
words of Lucretius furnish a good com- 
ment : — 

The Hash first strikes the eye, and then we hoar 
The clap, which does more slowly reach the ear. 
— vi, 164, 165. 

Compare Psa. xxix, where the word 
voice also frequently appears. The 
voice of his excellency — Of his maj- 
esty : nor is there a sound in nature 
more descriptive of, or more becoming, 
the majesty of God, than that of thun- 
der, says Dr. Clarke, who gives here a 
dissertation on lightning. He will not 
stay them — That is, the lightnings. 
Elihu paints with vivid colours the ap- 
proaching thunder-storm. The light- 
nings become more vivid and frequent, 
flushing even unto the ends of the 
earth; the thunder follows more close- 
ly upon the flash, "after it a voice 
roareth ! "' and then we have the match- 
less swiftness of the lightning — so swift 
that none but God could " stay them." 
The exclamations of astonishment and 
alarm, intermingling with the lightning 
Hashes, point to a scene actually pres- 
ent to the senses. 

Strophe e. — The (liunder-storm sug- 
gests to the mind of Elihu ot/ier meteoro- 
logical phenomena of nature, such assnovj, 
rains, wind, ice, and in general the reign 
O. T. 



226 



JOB. 



Be thou on the earth ; 4 likewise to the 
small rain, arid to the great rain of his 
strength. 7 He sealeth up the hand of 
every man ; rt that all men may know his 
work. 8 Then the beasts e go into dens, 



4 Heb. and to the shower of rain, and to the 

showers of rain of his strength. d Psa. 

109. 27. 



of winter, which, by sealing up the face of 
nature, furnishes man abundant oppor- 
tunity for reflection, G-10. 

6. Be thou — As in the Septuagint ; 
or, Fall thou, according to some critics, 
which, as Conant says, "very poorly 
expresses the gentle falling of the 
snow." As respects sublimity, the 
passage reminds us of the divine hat that 
called light into being. Gen. i, 3. The 
uncounted flakes of snow, in crystal- 
lized beauty, and pure as the light of 
the day, no less express the merciful 
thought of God than, as Elihu inti- 
mates, his ever-recurring creative act. 
E. H. Palmer, when in Idumaea, en- 
countered a heavy storm of snow, which 
soon rendered the mountain paths im- 
passable, and subjected the party to 
extreme discomfort. {Desert of the Ex- 
odus, p. 444.) Small rain — Rather, a 
gush of rain, such as follows a clap of 
thunder. So copious is the Hebrew 
language, that it has no less than seven 
different words for rain. The view of 
Hirtzel and Dillmann, that there is a 
reference here to the early and latter 
rain, is not sustained. 

7. Sealeth up — That is, through 
storms and cold He compels men to 
cease from rural labours, that they 
who are his work (literally, all men of 
his work) may be led to reflect upon Him 
and his ways, "that every man may 
know his own weakness," (Septuagint.) 
A Persian poet (Saadi) has aptly said 
of the green leaves of the forest, 

In the eye of the intelligent, 
Every single leaf, is a book of knowledge 
evincing a creator. 

JEschylus uses a like phrase, " the seal- 
ing up of thunder," for restraining it. 
(Eumen., 830.) Dr. T. Lewis refers to 
the magnificent description of a thun- 
der storm in Psalm xxix, as witnessed 
from the sheltering temple, whilst at 
every thunder peal "every one in His 
temple (verse 9) is crying ' Glory ! '" 



and remain in their places. 9 5 Out of 
the south cometh the whirlwind : and 
cold out of the 6 north. 10 f By the 
breath of God frost is given : and the 
breadth of the waters is straitened. 

ePsa. 104. 22. 5 Heb. Out of the chamber. 

G Heb. scattering winds. — ^'Chap. 38. 29, 30. 

Psa. 147. 17, 18. 

("1133 ""IDK-) Similarly, a sheltering home 

should lead to a like grateful recognition 
of God, as " lie doth fly upon the wings 
of the wind," letting loose the forces 
of nature, and controlling, while inten- 
sifying, their power. Palmistry — the 
art of divining one's fate by inspecting 
the lines and lineaments of the hand — 
founded its foolish pretensions upon a 
false reading of this passage, making it 
to mean that God has sealed upon every 
man's hand how long he shall live. See 
Wemyss on Job, p. 300. 

8. The world is thus left to man alone 
in the presence of God. (Canon Cook.) 

9. Out of the south — Not unlike 
the Greek, the Oriental imagined a se- 
cret chamber, or home, for the whirl- 
wind, from which God summoned it 
forth. Sweeping over the great Ara- 
bian desert, which lay to the south, 
these storms acquired a fearful moment- 
um. See note on chap, i, 19. The 
north — Hebrew, mezarim, Furst sup- 
poses to mean the constellations of the 
north ; others, as in the margin, the 
scatter ers, the name given to the winds 
in the Koran. 

10. By the breath of God— See 
note on chap, iv, 9. Frost is given 
— The preceding verse has spoken of 
the whirlwind of the south, and the 
mysterious mezarim that "scatter" the 
clouds, and prepare the way for "the 
cold," (mp.) the wintry king of nature. 

But these stormy messengers do not so 
much speak of God as the silent frost, 
(mp,.) whose beneficent mission is ac- 
complished amid the general silence of 
nature. "Frost," says Dr. Clarke, "is 
God's universal plough, by which he 
cultivates the whole earth." "The 
waves of cold," of which science speaks, 
that in solemn silence sweep across con- 
tinents, Elihu sublimely attributes to 
the breath of God. Is straitened — 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



227 



1 1 Also by watering he wearieth the 
thick cloud: he scattereth 7 his bright 
cloud : 1 2 And it is turned round about 
by his counsels : that they may 5 do what- 
soever he commandeth them upon the 



7 Heb. the cloud of his light. g Psa. 148. 8. 

h Exod. 9. 18, 23 ; 1 Sam. 12. 18, 19 ; Ezra 10. 9 ; 



Compare chapter xxxviii, 30. Hitzig 
acutely remarks, that "it is not the 
mass of waters that is spoken of, but 
their breadth." The straitening of 
the waters does not necessarily refer, 
therefore, to the freezing of them over, 
but rather to their restriction, or nar- 
rowing, by reason of the ice along 
each side or bank, and, therefore, has 
nothing to do with the scientific fact 
that water expands in the act of con- 
gealing. The citation Umbreit makes 
from an Arabic poet will illustrate an- 
other possible rendering of p^OB, 

" firmly bound," (thus T. Lewis,) instead 
of " straitened:" — " The floods are fet- 
tered in bonds of iron." 

Strophe f — The constantly-flashing 
lightning, and the ever-changing and re- 
volving clouds, lead Elihu to again speak 
of lightning and of cloud, and show that 
even these are under the guidance of God, 
11-13. 

" The storm in its magnificent ap- 
proach drifts victoriously before all the 
senses of Elihu, so that from all other 
images, brought forward, as they are, 
with a certain haste, he ever recurs to 
that of the storm." — Schlottmann. 

11. By "watering. . .cloud — Liter- 
ally, with moisture he loadeth the cloud. 
"While yet the burdened and wearied 
cloud discharges itself upon the earth, 
God spreadeth abroad the cloud of his 
light, which some regard as a lightning 
cloud. Scattereth— For import of He- 
brew word, compare chap, xxxviii, 24. 

12. It is turned. . .counsels — The 
changing, whirling, apparently capri- 
cious clouds are really under his guid- 
ance (" steering, after the manner of 
a ship," Dillmann) for the accomplish- 
ment of his beneficent or retributive 
designs towards " the world of the 
earth;" more literally, on the face of 
the habitable land of the earth. Heng- 
steuberg thinks that the expression it 
is turned, or "turns itself" {TUthpael, 



face of the world in the earth. 13 h He 
causeth it to come, whether for 8 correc- 
tion, or ' for his land, or k for mercy. 

14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand 
still, and ' consider the wondrous works 

chap.36. 31. — -8 Heb. a rod. — -i Chap. 38. 26, 27. 
k 2 Sam. 21. 10 ; l'Kings 18. 45. 1 Psa. 111.2. 

same as in Gen. iii, 24) round " in cir- 
cles," refers to the revolution of the 
seasons, which "accomplish, as it were, 
a complete course." This would be a 
digression hardly justified by the pre- 
ceding and following verses, which 
treat of the clouds as messengers of 
God's mercy or his wrath. 

13. Or for his land — Some, not so 
well, read this expression parenthetic- 
ally, (when for his land.) It stands 
rather as a divine providence between 
the dearth that brings correction and 
sorrow and the abundance which means 
mercy, but which is too oft perverted 
into channels of spiritual blight and 
apostasy : " so tempered, " says Warbur- 
ton, "in a long-continued course as to 
produce that fertility of soil which was 
to make one of the blessings of the Prom- 
ised Land, a providence as distinct from 
the other two of correction and mercy 
as the genus is from the species." — Di- 
vine Legation, vi, sec. 2. In chastise- 
ment the world is no less the care of 
God than when under the more con- 
stant regime of mercy. The very clouds, 
"the most elevating part of nature," 
whose design is one of mercy, ever tem- 
pering the sun's intolerable glare — frail 
and evanescent purveyors of heaven's 
wondrous gift of rain — may by the 
sins of men be converted into a scourge 
and blight to the world. 

Third division — An application to 
Job of the preceding discourses. 
The folly of contending with God, 
or of striving to grasp the mystery 
of suffering while the mysteries 
of God's working in nature remain 
unexplained, 14-24. 

a. He ivho presumes to arraign God 
in judgment (compare verse 19 with 
chap, xiii, 18, xxiii, 4,) and cannot ac- 
count for the simplest of his doings e:o 
cept to admit that they are, may with 
reason fear that such blindness of mind 
will transform itself into a fool-headed- 



228 



JOB. 



of God. 15 Dost thou know when God 
disposed them, and caused the light of 
his cloud to shine? 16 m Dost thou 
know the balancings of the clouds, the 
wondrous works ot n him which is per- 
fect in knowledge? 17 How thy gar- 



Chap. 36. 29- 



-n Chap. 36. 4. 
Isa. 44. 24. 



-o Gen. 1. 



ness of action which will bring down swift 
destruction, 14-20. 

15. When — Others, how. The most 
satisfactory reading is that of Heilig- 
stedt: " Knoivst thou how God imposed 
[laws] upon them ; how he did, .that 
these wonders should arise; for in- 
stance, how the light streams forth 
from out the dark cloud." 

16. The balancings of the clouds 
— The suspension of the clouds in the 
atmosphere, especially those freighted 
with rain, has not yet been satisfacto- 
rily explained. Dr. Samuel Clarke has 
a sermon in loc. on the " Omniscience 
of God." 

17. How — 1&X- Some of the best 

critics link the three verses (16-18) in 
one continuous thought, and read Thou 
whose garments are warm, etc. Shall 
he who suffers from heat which he 
does not understand exalt himself to a 
joint makership of the vault of the 
skies ? The Authorized Version is quite 
as satisfactory, with which Hitzig 
agrees. The oppressive, murky sultri- 
ness which immediately precedes the 
outburst of a heavy thunder-storm may 
have suggested the thought to Elihu. 
When he quieteth the earth — Or, 
according to some, " when the earth is 
quiet" or sultry. The experience of 
Dr. Thomson (Land and Book, ii, 312) 
furnishes a fit illustration: "The si- 
rocco to-day is of the quiet kind. . . . 
Pale lightnings played through the 
air like forked tongues of burnished 
steel, but there was no thunder and no 
wind. The heat, however, became in- 
tolerable, and I escaped from the burn- 
ing highway into a dark vaulted room 
at the lower Bethhoron. . . . This sen- 
sation of dry, hot clothes is only expe- 
rienced during the siroccos, and on 
such a day, too, one understands the 
other effects mentioned by the prophet, 
(Isa. xxv, 5,) bringing down the noise, 



ments are warm, when he quieteth the 
earth by the south wind f 18 Hast thou 
with him ° spread out the sky, which is 
strong, and as a molten iooklng-glass ? 
19 p Teach us what we shall say unto 
him ; for we q cannot order our speech by 



p Chap. 12. 3; 13. 3, 6. q Prov. 30. 2, 4: 

1 Cor. 13. 12. 



and quieting the earth. There is no 
living thing abroad to make a noise. 
. . . No one has energy enough to 
make a noise, and the very air is too 
weak and languid to stir the pendant 
leaves of the tall poplars." Compare 
Isa. xviii, 4. 

18. Molten looking-glass — Septu- 
agint, Vision of Melting. The mirrors 
of the ancients were made of metal, 
whose power of reflection depended 
upon their being highly burnished. 
Such a mirror might stand as an image 
of brightness or effulgence, as well as 
of strength or stability. The dazzling 
effulgence of an eastern sky, too great 
for the eye to bear, may have been re- 
ally the point of comparison in the 
mind of Elihu. The apostle alludes 
to the comparatively imperfect reflec- 
tion of mirrors made of metal, (1 Cor. 
xiii, 12;) but this divine mirror, not- 
withstanding all the storms which pass 
over it, is as bright now as in the 
morn of creation. In speaking of the 
strength of the sky, there is no evi- 
dence that Elihu regarded it as solid. 
On the contrary, as Petavius long ago 
suggested, though but thin and vapor- 
ous expanse, (rakidh,) it separates and 
holds up the waters, " as if it were a 
most solid wall." Comp. Gen. i, 6, 7. 
Our own word firmament, from the 
Latin word firmus, (strong,) corresponds 
to the Greek GTepeco/na, a word once used 
in the New Testament, and then ap- 
plied by the apostle to faith, (Col. ii, 5.) 
which our translators have rendered by 
steadfastness, that is, "firm in its 
place," the old Danish word sted signi- 
fying " place." For Scripture views 
of the sky, compare Exod. xxiv, 10, 
(transparent sapphire ;) Psalm cii, 26, 
(vesture ;) civ, 2, (a curtain ;) Isa. xl, 22, 
("as a curtain," or, "like gauze.") 

19. We cannot order our speech — 
Literally, We cannot set in order. This 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



229 



reason of darkness. 20 Shall it he told 
him that I speak j if a man speak, surely 
he shall be swallowed up. 21 And now 



Hebrew, 



is evidently a stern rebuke of Job for 
his boastful declarations in chap, xiii, 
18, and in chap, xxiii, 4, that he had 
set in ordei his cause: — the same word 
(Tjiy) being used in all three cases, and 

furnishing an instance among the many 
in this speech that it is an integral 
portion of the work. By reason of 
darkness — The reference is to the 
darkness of the understanding. Urn- 
breit suggests that the sense of the 
preceding verse should lead us to think 
of the bewildering blinding of the eyes 
when they are turned, in a bold con- 
troversy with the Almighty, towards 
the sunny heavens. 

20. That I speak— Shall it be told 
Him that I question and arraign his 
moral government — even I, involved in 
such darkness (verse 19) that I cannot 
order aright my speech ? He who thus 
speaks has reason to fear destruction : 
for such is the overwhelming presence 
of God that none can " see his face and 
live," much less speak to him face to 
face. If a man speak . . . swallowed 
up — Dillmann and the best critics 
render these words as a question : 
" Hath a man ever said that he would 
(fain) be destroyed?" Will one read- 
ily pursue a course involving certain 
destruction, such as Job would have 
done had he intruded himself before 
God? Exod. xix, 21: xxxiii, 20; Judg. 
xiii, 22, etc. 

b. The changing plienomena in the 
sky lead Elihu to remark that the bright 
light may for a time be veiled by clouds 
and darkness, but these shall be chased 
away. So the hidden and unsearchable 
God, all of whose attributes harmonize 
with each other, shall disclose himself in 
love to the heart that submissively bends 
before his incomparable majesty and 
glory, 21-21. 

21. And now is used in the temporal 
sense. The changes then taking place in 
the sky suggest the following beautiful 
figure: — Men see. . .cleanseth them 
— Delitzsch, Zockler, and Hitzig read 



men see not the bright light which is 
in the clouds : but the wind passeth, 
and cleanseth them. 22 9 Fair weather 



Gold. 



cleanseth, clear eth [chaseth] them aw ay. 
Every cloud, however dark, not only 
has "a silver lining," as we would say, 
but hides in (3) and behind itself the 
precious light. : The wind passes over 
the sky aud clears away the clouds, 
and the hidden light is revealed. The 
clouds that are black to us are bright- 
ness on the other side. " There is 
abundance of light," says Dr. Bush- 
nell, "which we might readily infer 
from the fact that so much of it shines 
through." — Sermon, in loc. " Elihu 
hereby means to say that the God who 
is hidden only for a time, respecting 
whom one runs the risk of being in 
perplexity, can suddenly unveil himself 
to our surprise and confusion, and that, 
therefore, it becomes us to bow hum- 
bly and quietly to his present myste- 
rious visitation." — Delitzsch. The fol- 
lowing view of Conant, which agrees 
with that of Rosenmuller, Ewald, Hirt- 
zel, etc., does not so well harmonize 
with the context: — " Men cannot look 
on the clear sunlight in the cloudless 
sky ; how then (verse 22) can they 
comprehend God, whom a more fearful 
majesty surrounds? Compare 1 Tim. 
vi, 16." 

22. Fair weather— 2TM, gold. Lit- 

T T 

eraliy, out of the north cometh gold, and 
is rendered by the Septuagint, " clouds 
shining like gold." It would certainly 
have been a descent from this sublime 
description of an Eastern thunder- 
storm for the poet to stop for the 
mere record of a well attested fact, 
that gold, in ancient times, was found 
in the north. The word must be used 
here in a figurative sense, an instance 
of which is given in Zech.iv, 12, where 
the word gold is used for "pure oil." 
Such figurative use of gold for splen- 
dour of light is common in Oriental 
literature: "The sun is gold," says 
Abulala. God is now approaching, as 
Elihu himself feels, for he a<jain breaks 
forth, "With (literally, wpor>) God is 
terrible majesty." A golden sheen fills 



230 



JOB. 



cometh out of the north : with God is 
terrible majesty. 23 Touching the Al- 
mighty, r we cannot find him out: s he 
is excellent in power, and in judgment, 



rl Tim. 6. 16. sChap. 36. 5. 



the northern sky as the awful Eloah 
draws near. The uplifting of the 
clouds indicated in the preceding verse 
prepares us for the irruption of divine 
glory. 

Samuel Wesley, in his learned disser- 
tations on Job, may not have been far 
out of the way in his view that this 
splendour was that of the Aurora Bo- 
realis, lifting itself above the storm. 
Wernyss indorses tins view, while Tay- 
ler Lewis remarks, " that it was some- 
thing that combined the beautiful, as 
we may judge from the name he gives 
it, with the terrible. That there was 
something of this fearful fascination 
about it is evident from the sudden 
cry which it calls out: With God is 
dreadful majesty." The interpretation 
of Hirtzel and Delitzsch is a constrained 
one, to wit, that man may lay bare the 
hidden treasures of gold, but cannot 
search out God. nor comprehend the 
depths of his wisdom and power. 

23. Touching the Almighty. . .he 
will not afflict— The Almighty! We 
cannot find him out; great (is he) in pow- 
er, but right and the fulness of justice he 
will not pervert. A most worthy ascrip- 
tion to Deity. His infinite power is 
restricted by his sense of right and 
justice. "The incomprehensibility and 
infinite perfection of God silence all 
objections to his government." — Scott. 
Thus the great difficulties stated by Job 
are met and answered. The humblest 
may cherish trust in God that "he will 
not afflict willingly," for chastisement 
and trial, which arise from the dark and 
unsearchable depths, really come from 
the divine heart. In place of He will 
not afflict, (he will not pervert, ^V],) 

Hirtzel and Rosenmuller read, "He an- 
swers not," when arraigned by the puny 
mind of man. We cannot find him 
out — See note on xi, 7, and " Garbett's 
Bampton," (1867,) lee. iv. 

24. He respecteth not — He regard- 
eth not, (or, as nothing — Schultens,) any 



and in plenty of justice : he will not af- 
flict. 24 Men do therefore ' fear him : 
he respecteth not any that are u wise of 
heart. 



matt. 10. 28.- 



Matt. 11. 25; 1 Cor. 1.26. 



of the wise of heart, "who seem to 
themselves to be wise." (Vulgate.) 
The self-couceited wisdom of men is 
beneath the contempt of God. Even 
" the f oolisliness of God is wiser than 
men." 1 Cor. i, 25-29. The dispute, so 
long protracted, ends in the nothingness 
of man. Human wisdom, that flaunted 
high" pretensions, trails in the dust. 
The murmuring and rebellious sufferer, 
who but a little before defied man and 
questioned God, is now abashed into 
silence, and by his silence acknowl- 
edges the justice of Elihu's reasoning 
and rebuke, (comp. vi, 24,) so that now 
naught remains but the divine disclo- 
sure, which Job has every reason to 
apprehend. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Jehovah's Discourses — The second 
part of the positive solution of 
the problem, chaps, xxxviii-xlii, 6. 

" The aim of which is, to prove that 
the almighty and only wise God, with 
whom no mortal should dispute, might 
also ordain suffering simply to prove 
and test the righteous." — Zockler. 

First Discourse of Jehovah, chap- 
ters xxxviii, xxxix. 

Though Job, who at the close of the 
debate was conqueror, (see page 170,) 
has maintained the silence he had 
promised in case he should be con- 
vinced, (vi, 24,) there is as yet noth- 
ing to indicate that the soul has been 
subdued. Notwithstanding he is de 
feated in the realm of mind, he may 
yet stand erect in vainglory and self- 
exaltation. 

To say nothing of the spiritual aspect 
of the case, the work, in an artistic 
view, would be incomplete with its hero 
unsubdued and defiant. The pious 
and evangelical addresses of Elihu 
have, therefore, served a twofold pur- 
pose : that of argumentative conviction 
of the mind, and of transition to soul 
conviction — a work which belongs not 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



231 



to man, but to God alone. Elihu, as 
we have remarked, appeared upon 
the scene as messenger and deputy 
of God. (See page 201.) The ad- 
dress of the Almighty consequently 
does not propose to contravene that 
of his deputy, and is, therefore, made 
to Job. 

It takes up the subject from the 
sphere of natural phenomena, where 
Elihu, in alarm, had left it, and begins 
with a rebuke of Job for darkening 
counsel by words without knowledge. 
The discourse practically endorses that 
of Elihu, and confessedly adds but little 
to dogmatic argument. However, " a 
question rightly asked is already half 
answered," as Jacobi has observed; 
and this may be the secret of the divine 
mode in this address, the severity of 
which is tempered with divine benig- 
nity and condescension. It consists of 
a series of questions — "the proper 
mode of utterance for the awful majesty 
of God " — which must have fallen upon 
the st-trtled ear of Job like so many 
claps of thunder. The lesson which 
each of these questions served more 
deeply to impress upon the soul of Job 
was one of unconditional submission, 
" without the learning of which, all 
solutions of problems, whether higher 
or lower, would be of no avail." His 
pride is abased by the unexpeced man- 
ner in which God appears. We have 
seen intimations that Job cherished 
expectations of some grand as well as 
gracious interference, which, as with a 
Naaman, should pay great deference to 
him, the innocent sufferer. He cer- 
tainly had anticipated a high confer- 
ence with Deity, in which the reasons 
of his sufferings should be unfolded, 
and himself justified. Instead of this, 
the muttering storm must have aroused 
apprehensions that the God who draws 
near has indeed come to judgment. 
The clearing of the sky betokens the 
theophany to be one of mercy and of 
love, an unconscious prophecy of the 
future incarnate One. of whom it was 
to be said : A bruised reed shall he not 
break, and a glimmering wick shall he 
not quench. Isa. xlii, 3. God comes 
now not to argue, nor bring solutions of 
evil, but to "offer himself as that which 



supersedes solution." The' contempla- 
tion of the divine glory stills the voice 
of murmur; the high-sounding argu- 
ments Job had prepared against the ap- 
pearing of Jehovah are all forgotten ; 
and '' the problem of trouble is cast 
aside as a worthess quibble." 

In the mirror of the divine wisdom, 
goodness, and power, Job sees himself 
ignorant, self-righteous, vain, and pre- 
sumptuous. His loud complaints of 
divine neglect — nay, that God had 
turned to be his enemy — suffer stern 
rebuke from the divine care for the de- 
serted brood of the voracious raven. 
As Hengstenberg well says, " The lion 
and the raven, the aristocracy and the 
proletariat of the world of beasts, rise 
up as witnesses against Job. . . . At first 
sight it must occasion surprise that the 
mind of the suffering righteous is di- 
rected to the war-horse, to the hawk, 
to the raven, to the behemoth or hip- 
popotamus, to the leviathan or croco- 
dile. And yet, more carefully exam- 
ined, we see that such a course was 
fully adapted to its purpose. An al- 
mighty, all-knowing, and all- wise God, 
who is not at the same time righteous, 
is in truth an unthinkable thought. For 
this reason those who doubt God's right- 
eousness are on the high road to doubt 
His existence. . . . Then, should we 
fall into error regarding one side of the 
divine nature, we shah be able to lift 
ourselves up by cleaving all the more 
firmly to another. By and by even the 
dark side will become light." 

The change of style, when compared 
with the sublime utterances of Job 
even, is noteworthy. The tone is 
exalted; the fires of passion kindle 
through every verse ; the imagery is 
grander and more massive ; the speak- 
er seems to stand within the realms of 
antediluvian life, and to hold at his 
command all departments of nature 
and of being, and. humanly speaking, 
to have fired his imagination by sights 
and conceptions to which we have 
nothing to correspond. 

The discourse divides itself into six 
great strophes, three of which contain 
twelve verses each ; two of them con- 
tain eleven verses each, and one of 
them ten verses. 



232- 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THEN the Lord answered Job a out of 
the whirlwind, and said, 2 b Who 



a Ex. 19. 16, 18 ; 1 Ki. 19. 11 ; Ezek. 1. 4 ; Nah. 1.3. 



1. The Lord — Jehovah. See note, 
i, 21. This name of tenderness, mercy 
and hope reappears as the solution 
of the mystery draws nigh. An- 
swered Job — Bishop Wordsworth re- 
marks, that the mention of the fact that 
the Lord answered Job is tantamount 
to an intimation that some one else had 
spoken just before the Lord's answer. 
This was Elihu. Out of the whirl- 
wind — rnyDn jp ; more properly, out 
of the storm. Canon Cook (Speaker's 
Com.) justly observes, that the article 
refers to the last part of Elihu's address. 
It is an attestation to the genuineness 
of that discourse, nor has any satis- 
factory explanation been suggested by 
those who reject it. Nothing could be 
more abrupt than the transition from 
Job's last words to this statement. 
And said — The natural inference is, 
that the communication was an articu- 
late utterance, and not, as Canon Cook 
intimates, a mere mental impression 
upon the understanding. The closing 
description of Elihu shows that the 
storm was abating. There is, therefore, 
no intrinsic difficulty in supposing an 
audible voice of God. 

Introduction — By a pertinent question 
Jehovah singles Job out as the object of 
special address, and recognises him, as 
the leader in arraigning the divine coun- 
sel, and proceeds to summon him to pre- 
pare for the divine adjudication he has so 
often invoked, (chap, ix, 34, 35 ; xiii, 18 ; 
xxiii, 3 ; xxxi, 35,) and more especially 
to meet the conditions of his own chal- 
lenge, (xiii, 22 :) Then - call thou, ajsd 

I WILL ANSWER, 2, 3. 

2. Who is this that darkeneth, etc. 
— A more pertinent and mortifying re- 
buke for the victor in debate could 
hardly be conceived. Counsel — In 
the sense of plan, of which the suffer- 
ings of Job were a part — an idea which 
God proceeds more fully to illustrate by 
the additional design or plan which ap- 
pears in the formation of the world. 
The quaint old divine, Thomas Brooks, 
citing this text, says : ; ' Men of abstract 



is this that darkeneth counsel by c words 
without knowledge ? 3 d Gird up now 
thy loins like a man ; for I will demand of 



Ch. 34. 35; 42. 3. c 1 Tim. 1. 7. d Ch. 40. 7. 

conceits and wise speculations are but 
wise fools: like the lark that soareth 
on high, peering and peering, but at 
last . falleth into the net of the fowler. 
Such persons are as censorious as curi- 
ous, and do Christ and his Church but 
very little service in this world." 

3. Gird up now thy loins — See 
note, chap, xii, 20. Job, who contro- 
verts the purposes of the Most High, 
from the nature of the case assumes 
an equal or co-extensive knowledge 
with Deity — an assumption now to be 
tested by a series of questions which 
shall still further demonstrate his abso- 
lute ignorance of the physical world, 
and logically show his utter incompe- 
tency to sit in judgment upon the sim- 
plest questions of the moral world. He 
is, therefore, called upon to " gird up his 
loins," for he will need all his resources 
for the task before him. Like a man 
— A recognition of the true nobleness 
of the manhood of normal man. 1 Cor. 
xvi, 13. Poverty and distress, and even 
the loathsomeness of disease, sully it 
not — "a man's a man for a' that." 

The first division of the discourse — 
The comprehensive knowledge of 
God's moral government displayed 
by Job justifies the propounding of 
some questions as to the physical 
and seemingly inanimate world, in 
the midst of avhich man has been 
placed, with the high endowments 
of wisdom and understanding, 4-38. 

First long strophe — The vastness 
of Job's knowledge must embrace 
the process of the creation of 
earth, sea, and light, 4-15. 

" All true knowledge is genetic." — 
Hitzig. He who claims insight into 
that which is, must know how it came 
to be, for nature (natura) is a perpetual 
birth. This first long strophe treats of 
the wonder-working of Omnipotence. 
Each of the minor strophes consists of 
four verses, the fourth verse of each, 
according to Schlottmann, forming a 
climax in the thought. 

a. Job is summoned to explain tlie 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



233 



thee, and 1 answer thou me. 4 e Where 
wast thou when I laid the foundations 
of the earth ? declare, 2 if thou hast un- 
derstanding. 5 Who hath laid the meas- 
ures thereof, if thou knowest 3 or who hath 



1 Heb. make me know. e Psa. 104. 5 : Prov. 

. 29; 30. 4. 2 Heb. if thou knowest under- 



founding of the earth; the laying oat of 
its architectural proportions ; and even so 
simple and yet glorious a matter as the 
laying of its corner-stone, 4-7. 

4. Laid the foundations — When I 
founded the earth (a more exact render- 
ing) better harmonizes with the wonder- 
ful scientific disclosure of chap, xxvi, 7. 

5. If thou knowest — Rather, That 
thou shouldst knoiv. This sounds the 
key-note to the whole series of ques- 
tions — the folly of man's assuming to 
comprehend the work of God. The 
puniness of the human mind will be set 
forth, just as a molehill finds its true 
dimensions beneath the shadow of a 
mountain. Each question conve^ys an 
oblique allusion to Job for his folly in 
arraigning an incomprehensible God. 
Chap, ix, 35 ; xiii, 18, 22 ; xxiii, 3-7 ; 
xxxi, 35-37. Stretched the line — 
Like a wise master-builder, with meas- 
uring-line he lays out the world. "Be- 
hold," says Samuel Wesley, " the archi- 
tecture of God ! The terms are those 
of the geometer or builder. The bases, 
the hinges, the lines, the perpendicular, 
the corner-stone, the measures." 

6. Whereupon are. . .fastened — 
On what were its foundations sunk ? A 
question that implies that the earth 
hung free in space, as stated xxvi, 7. 
Foundations — The Hebrew signifies 
also "pedestals," "bases." The cor- 
ner-stone — In ancient times it was 
massive, and not only served to bind 
together the sides of the building, but 
also as a depository for sacred objects. 
Sennacherib, in the Bellino inscription, 
speaks several times of the tinim— the 
clay tablets or cylinders that were in- 
scribed with sacred writings, and de- 
posited in the corner-stone. Compare 
a discourse in loc, by E. M. Goulburn. 

7. Morning stars — According to 
some, literal stars, whose song is one 
of metaphor. They are called morn- 
ing stars because of their association 
with the dawn of the world. A beau- 



stretched the line upon it? 6 Where- 
upon are the 3 foundations thereof 4 fas- 
tened? or who laid the corner-stone there- 
of ; 7 When the morning stars sang to- 
gether, and all r the sons of God shouted 



standing, 
to sink?-— 



— 3 Heb. sockets.- 
-7'Chap. 1. 6. 



Heb. made 



tiful figure it would be, that of the re- 
joicing of the brightest worlds over the 
birth of a sister star : (see note iii, 6 :) 
but the less fanciful view, is that which 
regards the morning stars as a higher 
order of angels — "creatures of such 
glory that they surpass all other crea- 
tures of God, in the same way that the 
brightness of the morning star {Luci- 
fer, Isa. xiv, 12) eclipses all the other 
stars." — Zockler. Stars, in the. Scrip- 
tures, are the stan d ing figure fo x an- 
gelK unnst calls himself " the bright 
and morning star," since he ushers in 
the everlasting day. Rev. xxii, 16. 
The promise of Christ to give "the 
morning star V to " him that overcom- 
eth," (Rev. ii, 28.) leads Dr. Candlish 
to the speculation that "it may seem 
probable that some joint-fellowship of 
angels and men in Christ's sonship is 
what, by thus connecting together, in 
so close a verbal relation, the widely- 
separated books of Job and the Reve- 
lation, the Spirit intends to teach. For 
thus we find the title 'morning star,' 
which is associated with that of ' son 
of God ' in the case of the angels, ap- 
plied to the Son of God himself, and in 
him, also, to the overcoming Christian. 
... In particular, as used in these 
texts, taken together, it surely points to 
the identification of unfallen angels and 
redeemed men with the second person 
in the Godhead." See his Cunningham 
Lectures, pp. 125, 155, 156. Sang to- 
gether — The ancients laid a corner- 
stone with music and songs. Ezra 
iii, 10 ; Zech. iv, 7. Bishop Words- 
worth alludes to the songs of the an- 
gels "at the laying of the foundation- 
stone of the temple of the new crea- 
tion, in the nativity of Christ." Sons 
of God — Sons of Elohim. See note 
on i, 6. Kurtz {Bible and Astronomy, 
sec. 18) enlarges upon the term Elo- 
him: "Let it be borne in mind that 
angels are always called the sons of 
God, but not of Jehovah. The term 



234 



JOB. 



up 

with doors, when it brake forth, as if it 
had issued out of the womb? 9 When 
I made the cloud the garment thereof, 



g Genesis 1. 9 ; Psalm 33. 7 ; 104. 9 ; Proverbs 8. 29 ; 
Jeremiah 5. 22. 



Elohim designates the Divine Being as 
the fulness and source of life, of power, 
of blessedness, of holiness, of glory and 
majesty. The term Jehovah describes 
him as merciful and gracious." . . . 
" The sons of Elohim are, therefore, 
they in whom shine forth his power 
and glory. The sons of Jehovah are 
those who receive, and are the vehicles 
of, his redeeming mercy. In this sense 
Israel is called the firstborn son of Je- 
hovah. Exod. iv, 22." See note, i, 21. 

Whether the interpretation given to 
"the morning stars," spoken of above, 
be that they belong to the inanimate 
or animate creation, we are justified in 
the remark that their creation preceded 
that of this world. The present allu- 
sion to " sons of God " makes it clear 
that there were conscious and joyous 
beings _Qf_a_high -grade insistence be- 
fore the founding of our world; that 
is, before the creative work described 
in Gen. i. This fact leads to the wider 
i nference , that the whole of the ,uni- 
verse_was not created a t onc e. 

b. Job may, perhaps, tell who sepa- 
rated the sea from the womb of primeval 
chaos, and restrained its violence and 
rcge within doors and bars, and made it 
docile and pliant as an infant in the 
hands of God, and subjected it to the do- 
minion of eternal law, 8-11. 

8. As if it had issued. — When it is- 
sued, or burst forth. The figure is one of 
incomparable grandeur. At the com- 
mand of God the sea comes forth from 
the chaos in which, as in a womb, it had 
lain concealed. The same verb, rPJ, 

" burst forth," is used in Psa. xxii, 9 of 
the issuing of the fetus from the womb. 

9. Thick darkness a swaddling 
band — The mighty sea, as it broke 
forth from unseen depths, was but an 
infant in the hands of God, with the 
cloud for garment, and the thick dark- 
ness its swaddling cloth. This carry- 
ing forward of the image of the newborn 
sea is evidently an allusion, if not a 



and thick darkness a swaddling band 
for it, 10 And 5 brake up for it h my 
decreed place, and set bars and doors, 
1 1 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, 

5 Or, established my decree upon it. 
h Chapter 26. 10. 



parallel, to "the darkness on the deep." 
(Gen. i, 2.) "I do not believe that this 
object was ever presented under a bold- 
er figure than that by which it is ex- 
pressed, of an infant which the Creator 
of the world swathes and clothes with 
its appropriate garments. It bursts forth 
from the clefts of the earth, as from the 
womb of its mother ; the Ruler and Di- 
rector of all things addresses it as a liv- 
ing being, ati a young giant exulting in 
his subduing power, and with a word 
the sea is hushed, and obeys him for- 
ever." — Herder, Hebrew Poetry, i, 89. 

10. Brake up. . .decreed place — 
Rather, And broke over it my decree. 
The tumultuous violence of the ocean 
is still in the poet's mind — its struggles 
were Titanic as it came into contact 
with the divine law. "The breaking 
of the land upon it represents, better 
than any other linguistic painting could 
do, its wild stubbornness. It is really 
the sea breaking itself against law; but 
there is great vividness and even sub- 
limity in the converse of the figure." — 
T. Lewis. Schlottmann sees in this 
sublime description an ambition on the 
part of the young sea infinitely to ex- 
tend its mass and limits ; (comp. vii, 12, 
with note;) but these are broken off 
with violence by one more powerfid, 
even God himself, and so forever con- 
fined within prescribed limits. Job may 
take comfort ; God can also set bars and 
doors to sorrow's waves. 

11. Hitherto shalt thou come — 
No one would, a priori, have conceived 
that so vast and mighty a body of wa- 
ter as the ocean could be kept in place 
by so contemptible a barrier as a shore 
of sand. There may have been in the 
mind of the speaker a more enlarged 
conception than that of a mere coast 
girding the sea on every side. That 
conception may have embraced the won- 
derful forces which unite to secure the 
stability of the ocean, and maintain 
its equilibrium. " The mean depth of 



CHAPTER XXXVIIT. 



235 



but no further : and here shall 6 thy proud 
waves ' be stayed ? 12 Hast thou " com- 



6Heb. the -pride, of thy leaves. 



the sea, according to the calculations 
of Laplace, is four or five miles. On 
this supposition, the addition to the sea 
of one fourth of the existing waters 
would drown the whole of the globe, 
excepting a few chains of mountains. 
Whether this be exact or no, we can 
easily conceive the quantity of water 
which lies in the cavities of our earth 
to be greater or less than it at present 
is. With every such addition or sub- 
traction the form and magnitude of the 
dry laud would vary " — producing vast- 
ly important and destructive conse- 
quences, which Whewell proceeds to 
unfold. — Astronomy and General Phys- 
ics, book i, chap. iv. The stability of the 
ocean is secured by numerous nicely ad- 
justed forces, among which the meau 
specific gravity of the earth, as well as 
the specific gravities of the moon, plan- 
ets, and sun, may be mentioned as the 
most important. To enlarge upon but 
one of these influences — the density of 
our earth : the simple circumstance that 
it is about five times that of water — an 
exact proportion, which needed a divine 
mind to establish — furnishes a restraint 
upon the immense fluid masses, by 
which they are held incumbent within 
their ocean bed. " The density of Jupi- 
ter is one fourth, that of Saturn less 
than one seventh, of that of the earth. 
If an ocean of water were poured into 
the cavities upon the surface of Saturn 
its equilibrium would not be stable. It 
would leave its bed on one side of the 
globe ; and the planet would finally be 
composed of one hemisphere of water 
and one of land. If the earth had an 
ocean of a fluid six times as heavy as 
water, (quicksilver is thirteen times as 
heavy,) we should have in like manner 
a dry and fluid hemisphere " — Whew- 
ell, ibid., book ii, chap. vi. Be stayed 
— Literally, One shall set — "a bound" 
evidently being understood. 

c. If so be Job was not in being when 
the foundations of the world were laid, 
perhaps he has, during his short life, 
shown his power and skill in carrying on 
the works of nature ; has, at least once, 



manded the morning since thy days ; 
and caused the dayspring to know his 



i Psa. 89. 9 ; 93. 4. k Psa. 74. 16 ; 148. 5. 

spread forth upon the earth the light of 
the morn, causing the aurora to know 
its place ; and thereby, to a certain ex- 
tent, wielded the moral government of 
the world, 12-15. 

12. Hast thou commanded the 
morning — " A morning," ~|p2. Since 

the creation of the earth God has, un- 
counted times, commanded the morn- 
ing to arise at its time ; has Job since 
his birth (literally " from thy days ") 
commanded one morning to break 
(bakar) the darkness of the night. 
Dayspring — This word (in^O is ren- 
dered "day," chap, hi, 9, on which see 
note. To know his place — " This 
seems to refer to the different points 
in which daybreak appears during the 
course of the earth's revolution in its 
orbit ; and which variety of points of 
appearing depends on this annual rev- 
olution. For as the earth goes round 
the sun every year in the ecliptic, one 
half of which is on the north side 
of the equinoctial, and the other half 
on its south side, the sun appears to 
change its place every day." (A. Clarke.) 
The aurora changes its place accord- 
ing to unerring law, in march and 
countermarch so exact, that like an 
intelligent being, it may be said from 
long association to " know its place." 
See note on vii, 10. Perhaps the 
so great knowledge of Job may have 
been by some means communicated to 
the fleeting, insubstantial, but beaute- 
ous, morn, (Shahhar, to shine,) so that, 
like him, it deviates not from the right, 
though it may constantly remove its 
place ! ! As respects processes of nature, 
the Semitic mind, from its earliest rec- 
ords, manifested implicit faith in their 
permanence, for the obvious reason 
that they are but the out-goings of the 
Divine Being, (Psalm lxv, 8-11 ;) so 
much so that even the dawn stands 
as an abiding emblem of the divine 
faithfulness, for, " His rising is fixed 
[nakon,~] like the morning dawn." Hos. 
vi. 3. See note, xlii, 7. On the other 
hand, to the early Aryan mind every- 



236 



JOB. 



place ; 1 3 That it might take hold of 
the 7 ends of the earth, that ' the wicked 

7 Heb. wings. 

thing in nature was fanciful and ca- 
pricious. "The Titanic assurance 
with which we [Aryans, enlightened 
by a divine revelation] say the sun 
must rise, was unknown to the early 
worshippers of nature. ... It seems 
to us childish when we read in the 
Veda such expressions as ' Will the 
sun rise ? ' ' Will our old friend, the 
dawn, come back again ? ' ' Will the 
power of darkness be conquered by the 
God of light ? '" Max Muller — Chips, 
etc.. ii, 93-100. 

13. Ends of the earth — See note 
on xxxvii, 3. Daylight, as it chases 
evil-doers back to their hiding places, 
seems "to take hold of the carpet of the 
earth, as it were, by the edges," and 
shake from it the wicked. The dawn 
shines forth under the figure of "a 
watchman, a messenger of the prince 
of heaven, sent to chase awav bands of 



might be shaken out of it ? 14 It is 
turned as clay to the seal ; and they stand 



I Psa. 104. 35. 



robbers," with their deeds of darkness. 
In ancient times justice was adminis- 
tered in the early morning, (Jeremiah 
xxi, 12,) as Drusius has fully shown. 
There is an unmistakable allusion to 
Job's complaint, (xxiv, 16, 17.) The 
constant return of the light of the day 
" thus becomes an image of the perpet- 
ual flight and destruction of wicked 
men before God." — Ewald, 297. 

14. It is turned as clay to the seal 
— It is changed like signet-clay. The 
earth, which beneath the veil of night ap- 
peared an obscure and disfigured mass, 
takes the impress of the rising light, 
and reveals forms of beauty and linea- 
ments of design, just as the uncouth clay 
receives and retains the stamp of the 
seal. In other words, the dark earth no 
sooner feels the touch of the morning 
light— the seal the Almighty holds in 
his hand — than it responds by a dis- 




c£ay tablet stamped by a seal. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



237 



as a garment. 15 And from the wicked 
their m light is withholden, and n the 
high arm shall be broken. 16 Hast 
thou ° entered into' the springs of the sea ? 
or hast thou walked in the search of the 



m Chap. 18. 5. n Psa. 10. 15. 



closure of a widespread landscape in all 
its diversified form and hue. The fig- 
ure is one of exquisite beauty. Many of 
the Assyrian seals, according to Lay- 
ard, {Nineveh, etc., vol. ii, 421 ; iii, 608,) 
were most delicately and minutely or- 
namented with various sacred devices. 
They were often cylindrical, and turned 
on an axis. "They were evidently 
rolled on the moist clay at the same time 
as the characters were impressed. The 
tablet was then placed in the furnace 
and baked." Some suppose that there 
is a reference here to the revolution of 




CYLINDRICAL SEAL. 

the earth around its axis. See note of 
Hitzig, in loc. As a garment — The ob- 
jects thus revealed stand forth like the 
variegated embroidery of a garment. 
The ancient Egyptians, according to Eu- 
sebius, portrayed the world after the 
form of a man clad in a variegated gar- 
ment reaching down to the feet. 

15. Their light — Darkness is their 
light, (Delitzsch, "their favourite light,") 
as in chap, xxiv, 17 ; John iii, 19. The 
high arm — Compare chap, xxii, 8, 9; 
xxxi, 22. Shall be broken — Inasmuch 
as the light of the day prevents the ac- 
complishment of the nefarious work for 
which the arm was uplifted. 

Second long strophe — Questions are 

PROPOUNDED CONCERNING THE PENE- 
TRALIA OF NATURE — THE HIDDEN AND 
INACCESSIBLE DEPTHS — EVEN THE PRI- 
MORDIA OF HER COMMONEST ELEMENTS 
AND FORCES, 16-27. 



depth ? 17 Have p the gates of death 
been opened unto thee? or hast thou 
seen the doors of the shadow of death ? 
18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of 
the earth ? declare, if thou knowest it all. 



o Psa. 77. 19.- 



Psa. 9. 13. 



This second long strophe descants 
upon the attribute of wisdom, with the 
closely allied attribute of omniscience. 

a. The knower of all things must have 
explored the fountains of the sea; have 
seen the gates of death unveiled; and com- 
passed the breadths of the earth. 16-18. 

16. The search— "ipn: the recesses. 

Same as in xi, 7, which see. Compare 
2 Esdras iv, 7, 8, and viii, 8. 

17. Gates of death— Used figurative- 
ly, or according to the usage of that age. 
The Assyrian legend of the ////////,*; 
descent of Ishtar into ha- 
des, "the house men enter 
but cannot depart from," 
speaks of seven gates. On 
the Egyptian sarcopha- 
gus of Oimenepthah, each 
department of the regions 
of the dead is divided 
from the next by a tall 
door, turning upon pivots, 
and guarded, as in the an- 
nexed engraving, by a ser- 
pent. The British Muse- 
um contains a stone door 
brought from Syria, which 
turned upon pivots like 
this door. Comp. 1 Chron. 
xxii, 3 ; 1 Kings vii, 50. 
As in chap, xxvi, 5, 6, 
(which see,) mention of 
the secrets of the great 
deep is linked with the 
under world of the dead, 
which lay near by, accord- 
ing to the popular view. 
Man's science knows as 



PIVOT DOOR. 

little of the world of the dead now as 
then. Hast thou seen — And yet Job 
has talked of death and its desirable- 
ness as if well acquainted with its ex- 
tended domain ; (ch. iii, 13-19 ; x, 21,22; 
xiv,12,13; xvii,13-16,etc. ;) but not even 
the gates of death has Job ever seen. 
Shadow of death — See note, iii, 5. 

18. The breadth of the earth — 
Plural, "breadths." However far and 



238 



JOB. 



1 9 "Where is the way where q light dwell- 
eth ? and as for darkness, where is the 
place thereof, 20 That thou shouldest 



tflsa. 45. 7; John 1. 9; 



12. 



whichever way he may travel, man 
never perceives the breadth of the earth. 
It is ever fleeing from him. This, then, 
also belongs to the unknown. 

j3. He must also undeistand the cosmi- 
cal phenomena of light and darkness; 
must not only know the paths to their 
house, out himself venerable in years, 
must at some time have escorted them to 
their home, 19-21. 

1 9. Way where light dwelleth — 
Neither does the corpuscular theory of 
Newton, nor Huyghens' undulatory the- 
ory, account for the rise, the cause, or 
the source of light. Its dwelling place, 
" in what kind of land it dwells," (Sep- 
tuagint,) is an impenetrable mystery. 
" Ask of the learned the way, the 
learned are blind." 

Speaking of light, Prof. Tyndall re- 
marks : " We are here dealing, for the 
most part, with suppositions and as- 
sumptions merely. We have never 
seen the atoms of a luminous body, nor 
their motions. "We have never seen 
the medium which transmits their mo- 
tions, nor the waves of that medium." 
— The Forms of Water, pp. 10, 12. And 
yet science has penetrated so far into 
the arcana of nature as to measure the 
magnitude of 'the light waves ' by their 
effects, and to find them varying from 
one thirty thousandth to one sixty 
thousandth of an inch. " The whole 
of that region of space over which as- 
tronomers have extended their survey, 
and doubtless a region many millions 
of millions of times more extended, may 
be compared to a wave-tossed sea, only 
that, instead of a wave-tossed surface, 
there is a wave-tossed space. At every 
point, through every point, along every 
line, athwart every line, myriads of 
light waves are at all times rushing 
with the inconceivable velocity of 
185,000 miles per second." — R. A. 
Proctor. Science, instead of solving, 
is constantly adding to, its difficulties. 
Its terra incognita — its land of the un- 
known — in an inverse ratio to the ex- 
plorations made, is constantly enlarging. 
The most approved works of modern 



take it 8 to the bound thereof, and that 
thou shouldest know the paths to the 
house thereof? 21 Knowest thou it, 



8 Or, at. 



science, professedly clearing the way 
to the penetralia of nature, do but little 
more than open up a multitude of inde- 
terminate problems. The haze that 
rests upon the nature of ultimate mate- 
rial causes — upon the beginning or es- 
sence of nature's forces — is no less 
dense now than in the days of Job. 
The secret of this lies in the profound 
thought of Edmund Burke, that every 
subject we attempt to explore branches 
into the infinite. The most that phi- 
losophy does is to record the processes 
of nature — to peer a little into the in - 
finite unknown, in which the primor- 
dia of nature dwell. To make man 
sensible of his consummate ignorance, 
and to open up to him the essential 
finiteness of the human mind, is really 
the gist of these questions ; questions 
which, though they be never so simple, 
philosophy will be powerless fully to un- 
fold so long as mind is cased in flesh and 
blood. "As in Gen. i, the light is here 
regarded as a self-subsistent, natural 
force, independent of the heavenly lu- 
minaries by which it is transmitted ; 
and herein modern investigation agrees 
with the direct observations of antiq- 
uity." — Schlotlmann. See an article 
entitled " Drifting Light Waves," by 
R. A. Proctor, in Contemporary Review, 
1877, ii. pp. 219-240. Also, "On the 
Place where Light Dwelleth," in Eclectic 
Magazine, 1870, i, pp. 725-739; ii, 80-86, 
taken from the British Quarterly Review. 

20. Bound thereof — The boundary 
between light and darkness, (Hirtzel;) 
or, rather, if we make it parallel with 
"house," of the second clause, the pri- 
mordial, or beginning place. A climax is 
reached by asking Job if he can escort 
either light or darkness back to its home. 

21. Knowest thou it — Thou knoiu- 
est! for then least thou born, and the num- 
ber of thy days is great ! The keenest 
irony. Job knows so much, that he must 
have come into existence at the time 
when light and darkness were created I 

y. He must have penetrated to the 
storehouses of snow and hail, and entered 
nature's laboratory, where, like so many 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



239 



because thou wast then horn ? or be- 
ciu.se the nuniher of thy days is great ? 
22 Hast thou entered 'into r the treas- 
ures of the snow? or hast thou seen 



r Psa. 135. 7. 8 Exod. 9. 18 ; Josh. 10. 11 ; 



implements of war, they are produced in 
vast quantities; he must have found his 
way to the focal centre from which light 
divides itself and whence the east wind is 
dispersed over the earth, 22-24. 




SNOW CETSTAL8. 

22. Treasures of the snow — 

nilVN: a word applied frequently to 

the treasures of the temple, (1 Kings 
vii, 51,) or to those of the royal house. 
1 Kings xiv, 26; xv, 18, etc. It is 
also employed for "magazines," "treas- 
uries," or "storehouses;" but here po- 
etically and figuratively for rich and 
precious treasures that God has laid up 
against a time of trouble, of which ex- 
planation is given in the following 
verse. Delitzsch finds in the word ot- 
seroth (treasures) a deeper meaning — 
the final causes of these phenomena 
which God has created ; the form of the 
question, the design of which is ethical. 



the treasures of the hail, 23 9 Which I 
have reserved against the time of trouble, 
against the day of battle and war? 
24 By what way is the light parted, 



Isa. 



Ezek. 13. 11,13; Rev. 16.21. 



not scientific, being regulated according 
to the infancy of the perception of nat- 
ural phenomena among the ancients. Cp. 
Psa. cxxxv, 7. These weapons of war 
(ver. 23) come forth from the divine and 
unseen arsenal, displaying evidences of 
divine elaboration and skill. Seen un- 
der a microscope they present a beau- 
t} r and a variety unsurpassed by ob- 
jects either in the animal or vegetable 
kingdom. Produced in calm air, the 
snow builds itself into beautiful stellar 
shapes, each star possessing six rays. 
Sir John Herschel remarks, that the va- 
riety of forms affected by these delicate 
mechanisms is infinite; the beauty of 
their patterns incomparable. The 
treasures of the hail — Hail falls 
most commonly in the latter part of 
the spring, in very heavy storms, and 
the hail stones are of an enormous size, 
etc. Russell, Hist, of Aleppo, i, 7l. 
Of Palestine in general, Robinson says : 
Hail falls in the bill country in the rainy 
season more frequently than snow; but 
does not, in general, occasion much dam- 
age. Fine hail mingled with rain is 
common. Phys. Geog. of Holy Land, 265, 

23. The day of battle and war- 
Man's ordnance for war is the wide- 
mouthed and wide-resounding cannon ; 
God's, the silent snowflake, the blight, 
the unseen fungi floating in the air, or 
marshalled hosts of insects. "Provi- 
dence," said Napoleon, "is on the side 
of the heaviest battalions ; " heaven's 
answer consisted simply of snow and 
hail and cold ; and one of the mightiest 
armies of modern times was laid low. 
Horace has a similar thought : 

Too long, alas ! with storms of hail and snow, 
Jove has chastised the world below. 

Demosthenes compares the destructive 
course of King Philip to a storm of 
hail. For Scripture illustrations see 
Exod. ix, 18; Joshua x, 11; 1 Samuel 
vii, 10; 2 Samuel xxiii, 20; Psalm 
lxviii, 14; Isa. xxviii, 17, etc. 

24. By what way, etc. — What ia 



240 



JOB. 



which scattereth the east wind upon 
the earth? 25 Who l hath divided a 
watercourse for the overflowing of wa- 
ters, or a way for the lightning of thun- 
der ; 26 To cause it to rain on the earth, 

t Chap. 28. 26. u Psa. 107. 35. 



the way that light divides itself? (Dill- 
mann and Hitzig.) Which scatter- 
eth, etc. — [Hoiv] does the east wind scat- 
ter itself over the earth? The east 
wind, for diffusiveness and destructive- 
ness corresponding to the Eurus of the 
classics, is here used representatively. 
It was an east wind that was summoned 
to hurl the wicked man out of his place, 
(xxvii, 21, on which see uote,) and an 
east wind also which broke the ships 
of Tarshish. Psa. xlviii, T. The rea- 
son that light and the east wind are 
mentioned together may be that they 
both take their rise in the same quar- 
ter of the sky, or because of the ex- 
treme heat associated with each. 

6. Who formed the heavenly conduits, 
through which the water torrents flow f 
and who providentially guides the thun- 
derbolt, so that untenanted wastes and the 
thirsty wilderness are Messed? 25-27. 

25. Overflowing of waters — The 
rain falls in such immense masses that 
the sky seems to overflow. Some 
one's mind directs, as through aque- 
ducts, these outpourings (literally, 
"the water gush" of the sky) which 
inundate specific regions, and even 
those unoccupied by man. A way 
for the lightning of thunder — 
The Hebrew is verbatim the same as 
in xxviii, 26, on which see note. Thun- 
der is now generally regarded as the 
result of the sudden re-entrance of the 
air into a void space, as in the experi- 
ment of a bladder tied over an open- 
mouthed receiver, and burst by the 
pressure of the external air. This 
vacuum is supposed to be generated 
by the lightning in its passage through 
the air. Electricity communicates a 
powerful repulsive force to the particles 
of air along the path of its discharge, 
producing thus a momentary void, into 
which immediately afterward the sur- 
rounding air rushes with a violence pro- 
portioned to the intensity of the elec- 
tricity. Looms? Meteorology, p. 168. Dr. 



where no man is; on the wilderness, 
wherein there is no man ; 27 u To 
satisfy the desolate and waste ground; 
and to cause the bud of the tender herb 
to spring forth ? 28 v Hath the rain a f a- 



Psa. 147. 8; Jer. 14. 22. 



Clarke (Com., in loc.) gives a disserta- 
tion on the connexion between thunder 
and rain. 

26. Where no man is — Gk>d lays 
stress on this circumstance in order to 
humble man, and to show him that the 
earth was made neither by him nor foi 
him. (Renan.) The subject trenches 
upon the unfathomable mystery of 
lavish expenditure, if not apparent 
waste, in the universe of God. Mat- 
thew xxvi, 8. For instance, according 
to Herschel, our earth intercepts only 
one two-hundred-and-fifteen-millionths 
of the rays of the sun, the rest, for the 
most part, falling on no planet, but 
seemingly poured uselessly into empty 
space. One of the Arabian poets of the 
Moallakat — works on account of their 
superexcellence suspended in the Kaa- 
ba at Mecca — beautifully says, " The 
cloud unloadeth its freight on the Desert 
of Ghabeit, like a merchant of Yemen 
alighting with his bales of rich apparel." 

27. To satisfy the desolate and 
waste ground — As if it lifted an im- 
ploring voice to God, and he sent down 
the rain to satisfy it. The desert is 
thus like a thirsty pilgrim. (Barnes.) 

Third long strophe — Mortifying 

QUESTIONS AS TO THE ORIGIN OF METE- 
OROLOGICAL PHENOMENA, THE CONSTI- 
TUTION AND CONTROL OF MIGHTY CON- 
STELLATIONS, AND THE CREATIVE COM- 
MAND OF SO INSIGNIFICANT PHENOME- 
NA AS THE CLOUDS OF Job's OWN SKY, 

28-38. Predominant in this strophe is 
the twofold conception of power and 
wisdom which leads more particularly 
to questions as to the source of wisdom 
in man, (v. 36,) the boasted counterpart 
of God. 

a. Perhaps a human parentage may 
be found for the rain, the dew, the ice, and 
the hoar frost, and Job may be able to 
produce them at pleasure! 28-30. 

28. The rain. . .the drops of dew 
— The parentage of the rain and the 
dew is not with man, bin with God. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



241 



ther? or who hath begotten the drops of 
clew ? 29 Out of whose womb came the 
ice? and the w hoary frost of heaven, 



w Psa. 147. 16. 9 Heb. is 



Jablonski declares that the enlightened 
Egyptian considered the moon to be 
the parent of dew — a fact which gives 
emphasis to the question of the Al- 
mighty. Begotten — " The figure of 
generation" as Dr. T. Lewis remarks, 
"is kept up in Tpin, 'begotten.' There 

has been a great lack of attention to 
the momentous fact that so much of 
this language of generation, or of evo- 
lution, or production by birth, (one 
thing coming out of another,) is em- 
ployed in Scripture, not only in the 
poetical parts, such as Psalm xc, 2, 
civ, Proverbs viii, 22, and here in Job; 
but in the prose account of Gene- 
sis i, ' The earth bringing forth ; ' ' the 
w r aters swarming with life; ' 'the Spirit 
brooding upon them;' 'the generations, 
ni~6iFI, of the heavens and the earth.' " 

The questions of these two verses in- 
timate that nature has within herself 
no life, or potency of life, except such 
as God himself imparts. Nor is matter 
the universal mother " who brings forth 
all things as the fruit of her own 
womb," us Bruno (cited by Prof. Tyn- 
dall) would say, but rather a capacity 
for the evolving of life, and the various 
forms and qualities of life, either di- 
rectly, by the creative will of God, or 
indirectly, according to divinely-devised 
laws, to which God originally imparted, 
or continues still to impart, life-giving 
power. The questions of these verses 
spring from the remarkable generaliza- 
tion, which true science now justifies, 
that there can be no life without semi- 
nation.. This thought the text transfers 
in figure to the formation of the rain 
and the dew, the ice and the hoar frost ; 
even these dead forms or products of 
nature must have had an author. 

Verse 29 is an enlargement of the 
thought of the preceding verse. The 
variation in gender is accommodated 
to the idea that the ice and frost come 
forth from the earth, (see note, i, 21,) 
while the rain and drops of dew take 
their rise in heaven. 

Vol. V.— 17 



who hath gendered it? 30 The waters 
are hid as with a stone, and the face of 
the deep 9 is x frozen. 31 Canst thou 



taken. 



Chap. 37. 10. 



30. The waters are hid as with a 
stone — The waters harden like stone. 
Thus Fur st, etc. The root idea of 
N3fl is that of "hiding," "concealing:" 

here used in the Hithpael it signifies 
"they hide themselves." in other 
words, "congeal; " to which Umbreit 
gives the idea of " hiding under a 
stone." The comparison to a stone is 
introduced rather to show the result 
of freezing, which is a hardness like 
that of stone, J3K3- The son of Sirach 

speaks of the cold north wind clothing 
the water as with a breastplate. Ecclus. 
xliii, 20. Is frozen — Cleaves together.. 
See not^ on xxxvii, 10.^ The same 
word, rGprP, is used in xli, IT of the 

t - ; • 

joining together of the scales of the 
leviathan. The face of the deep closes 
in together after the manner of the 
human face, (thus Hitzig,) whose linea- 
ments constitute the countenance. Tyn- 
dall, in his treatise on " The Struc- 
ture and Properties of Ice," describes 
the transmission, in various directions, 
of sunbeams, condensed by a lens, 
through slabs of ice. " The path of 
every beam was observed to be in- 
stantly studded with lustrous spots, 
which increased in magnitude and 
number as the action continued. On 
examining the spots more closely they 
were found to be flattened spheroids, 
and around each of them the ice was 




L_ 



VSa 



ICli OKYSTALS. 



so liquified as to forma beautiful now- 
er-shaped figure possessing six petals. 
O. T. 



242 



JOB. 



hind the sweet influences of y 10 Ple- 
iades, or loose the hands of n Orion? 



2/ Chap. 9. 9; Amos 5. 8. 10 Or, The 

stars: Hebrew, Cimah. 



From this number there was no devia- 
tion. At first the edges of the liquid 
leaves were unindented ; but a contin- 
uance of the action usually caused the 
edges to become serrated like those of 
ferns." In his work ou "Forms of 
Water," (pp. 35-38,) the same author 
says, "In all cases the flowers are 
formed parallel to the surface of freez- 
ing. They are formed when the sun 
shines upon the ice of every lake ; 
sometimes in myriads, and so small as 
to require a magnifying glass to see 
them. . . . Here we have a reversal 
of the process of crystallization. . . . 
In this exquisite way every bit of the 
ice over which our skaters glide in 
winter is put together." 

(3. Perhaps Job can tell toho formed 
the constellations, " Arcturus. Orion, and 
Pleiades, and the chambers of the South" 
— upon which he descanted so sublimely, 
(ix. 9,) — and who set them in their lofty 
places, and ordained and confirmed their 
influences upon the earth! 31-33 

31. Sweet influences — Our Au- 
thorized Version is based on the natu- 
ral derivation of nilHSJlO from py. " to 

be soft " or " tender," the root idea of 
the word Eden. According to this 
rendering the meaning is, as given by 
Patrick, "Canst thou forbid the sweet 
flowers to come forth, when the 'seven 
stars ' arise in the spring 5 or open 
the earth for the husbandman's labour, 
win 11 the winter season, at the rising of 
Orion, ties up their hands;" — an inter- 
pretation fanciful and weak. The word 
is now generally supposed to be, by me- 
tathesis, from Ijy, "to bind;" hence 

bands. Fiirst, Gesenius, etc., follow the 
Septuagint and Targum in this render- 
ing. The word kimah, rendered Ple- 
iades, (the seven stars,) signifies heap 
or group, and naturally suggests the 
ties that bind it together into its beau- 
ful order, which leads Persian poets to 
compare it to a bouquet formed of jew- 
els, (see note, ix, 9,) and one of the 
Moallakat to say, "It was the hour 



32 Canst thou bring forth ^Mazzaroth 
in his season ? or canst thou 13 guide Arc- 



11 Hebrew, Cecil. 12 Or, Tlie tioelve signs. 

13Heb. guide them. 



when the Pleiades appeared in the 
firmament, like the folds of a silken 
sash, variously decked with gems." 
With Oriental poets "the bands of the 
Pleiades " is a frequent figure. It will 
illustrate the Authorized Version to add 
that Miidlar reached the conclusion 
that Alcyone, the principal star in the 
group of the Pleiades, now occupies 
the centre of gravity, and is at present 
the sun or great centre about which 
our universe of stars is revolving. 
This " focal point," it is proper to add, 
was conjectured by Struve to lie be- 
tween 7T and //, in the group Hercules ; 
while Argelander fixed upon Perseus as 
"the empire constellation of our astral 
system." These "seven stars," which 
in unspeakable beauty shine conspic- 
uously forth from a vast throng (heap) 
of apparently minor stars, out of a dis- 
tance perhaps forty million times as great 
as that of our own earth from the sun, 
send forth tender and as yet unestimated 
powerful influences, some of which our 
own earth is not too small to gather 
up and to feel. The hands of Orion 
— (See ix, 9.) niD^ift, signifies also 

fetters, or its belt of three stars. (Hit- 
zig.) These are the stars by which the 
giant form seems to be fastened to the 
heaven. (Hirtzel.) These mighty stars 
canst thou move from the places God 
has assigned them? Job can neither 
place in order the clustering Pleiades 
nor displace the stars of Orion. There 
is, possibly, an allusion to the won- 
derful nebula within this constellation. 
" Orion and the Pleiades are visible in 
the Syrian sky longer in the year than 
with us, and there they come about 
17° higher above the horizon than with 
us." — Delitzsch. 

32. Mazzaroth — Even at the time 
of the translation made by the Seventy, 
the meaning of this word was uncer- 
tain. It is now generally supposed to 
be the same as Mazzaloth, ("the plau- 
ets," 2 Kings xxiii. 5,) or a mere vari- 
ant form, and to stand for the (twelve) 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



243 



turus with his sons ? 33 Knowest thou 



zJer. 



s^n-s o/*#ie zodiac. The supposition that 
Mazzaloth and Mazzaroth are one word 
may be argued from the like termination, 
which is both plural and feminine, and 
from the interchangeableness of the 
liquids I and r in most languages ; for 
instance, the Latin Parilia for Palilia, 
"the festival of Pales;" the Hebrew 
Tsahar and Tsahal, "to shine ; ; ' the 
Arabic Kalban and the Hebrew Kereb, 
'•heart."' The division of the ecliptic 
(tiie apparent path of the sun) into 
twelve equal signs or constellations, 
called signs of the zodiac, is generally 
understood to be of great antiquity. 
The porticoes of the temples at Den- 
derah and Esne bear representations 
of the zodiac winch so markedly re- 
semble the zodiacal figures of the an- 
cient Hindus, Persians, Chinese, and 
Japanese, as to indicate that they had 
one common origin. The Greeks, how- 
ever, evidently derived their ideas and 
arrangements of the zodiac from the 
Chaldees. 

Other commentators, for instance 
Zockler (in Lange) and Dillmann, are 
led by a supposed etymology of the word 
(Mazzaroth) to fix upon some pre-emi- 
nently bright stars (for example, the plan- 
ets Venus, Jupiter, Mars) which were 
conspicuous for their change of place 
in the sky. Canon Cook (Speaker's 
Com.) points to a very ancient word, 
Masarati, probably derived from a sim- 
ilar hieroglyphic word, signifying the 
course or march of the Sun-god — indi- 
cating "the milky way," which was 
thought by the ancients to have "rep- 
resented the course of the sun at a re- 
mote period — the traces, so to speak, 
of his footsteps." (See Rawlinson's 
Ancient Mon., ii, 574, sec. ed. : Layard's 
Nineveh, ii. 440 : Greswell's Fasti, 
hi, 252-326 : Maurice's Hindostan, 
i, 272-359.) Arcturus — See note on 
ix, 9. The pregnaut question. Canst 
thou guide ? may possibly contain an 
occult allusion, which none but Jeho- 
vah could make, to the diverging move- 
ment of these stars, according to which 
the nearest of "the Pointers " is swift- 
ly approaching our earth, while the 



z the ordinances of heaven ? canst thou 
31.35. 

other is rapidly receding, in which mo- 
tion the other five participate — a sup- 
posed discovery that science has recent- 
ly made. Proctor, Expanse, etc.. p. 295. 
With his sons — The three bright stars 
that form the tail of the Bear, which in 
some languages are fancifully deemed 
to be children following " the bier," for 
such was thename the Arabs gave to the 
four leading stars of this constellation, 
which constitute a square. " The expres- 
sion," (hayish or 'hash,) says Ideler, in 
his treatise on the names of the stars, 
"denotes particularly the bier on which 
the dead are borne, and, taken in this 
sense, each of the two biers (in the 
Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) is accom- 
panied by three mourning women. The 
biers and the mourning women to- 
gether are called Bendt-riash, literally, 
daughters of the bier, that is, those 
who pertain to the bier." Hitzig de- 
votes a learned but exceedingly unsat- 
isfactory note to his view that Mazza- 
roth is the morning star, and 'hayish, 
Arcturus, is the evening star, thus 
adopting the rendering of the Saptua- 
giut, ea-epoc for gjiy. 

33. The ordinances — nipft: mean- 
ing here the laws that guide the stars, 
and control the seasons, etc. The in- 
timate and commanding relationships 
of the heavenly bodies to our earth are 
those of a king to his subjects. Hence 
the immediate reference to "dominion," 
— a thought that modern science illus- 
trates and confirms. Dominion there- 
of — TltDSPD, used only here, is a more 

significant word than the preceding one, 
(ordinances;) it is derived from shatar, 
"to cut into," "write," metaphorically 
administer; the art of writing being 
used in ancient times almost exclusive- 
ly for legislative and judicial purposes, 
(Fiirst ;) in accordance with which the 
word slwter signifies " an overseer," 
"an administrator." This pregnant 
question of the Almighty, Delitzsch 
reads. " Dost thou define its influence 
on the earth ? " Hitzig, " Dost thou de- 
termine its relation to the earth? " — a 



2U 



JOB. 



set the dominion thereof in the earth ? 
34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the 
clouds, that abundance of waters may 
cover thee? 35 Canst thou send light- 



14 Hebrew,' Behold us ? 



question which will ever task to the ut- 
most the resources of science to answer, 
y. May be Job can legislate for the 
firmament by wielding the thunder, draw 
down and empty the cloud, or by a word 
give life to the lightnings, that they may 
fulfil his behests, 34, 35. 

34. Thy voice to the clouds — Not 
a rain-drop can the human voice call 
from the sky, and yet abundance of 
rain is essential to the weal of our race. 

35. Canst thou send lightnings 
— Electric forces man may wield, but 
the lightnings, who can send and who 
control ? 

6. Job is plied with questions as to the 
source of ivisdom and understanding, on 
which man (Job) prides himself so high- 
ly ; and whether, with all his wisdom, he 
can even number the clouds, or make 
them to incline, that they may empty 
themselves upon the earth, 36-38. 

36. The inward parts — fiinp : a 

word which appears once besides, Psa. 
li, 6. Its root meaning, covered, hidden, 
points to the seat of affections, or mor- 
al nature, which, of all the elements of 
our being, is the most concealed. Ac- 
cording to the Rabbis, whom G-esenius 
follows, it means the reins or kidneys, 
in Hebrew physiology regarded as the 
abode of instinctive yearnings, and 
which also were deemed — so Delitzsch 
thinks — to be the organs of the faculty 
of foreboding. See note on xvi, 13. 
These and similar functions were, ac- 
cording to Plato, discharged by the liv- 
er — a fancy which probably gave rise 
to the prophetic inspection of the liver 
among the ancient Babylonians, (Ezek. 
xxi, 21,) Etruscans, Greeks, and Ro- 
mans. See Diodorus Siculus, ii, ch. iii, 
Booth ed., i, 125. Recent German 
commentators for the most part regard 
iuhhoth as phenomenal, in like manner 
with the corresponding word of the 
next clause, (sekvi,) and render it " dark 
clouds," (Zockler, Dilimann, Hitzig,) 
on the assumption that it is demanded 
by the context. The heart — Sekvi. 



nings, that they may go. and say unto 
thee, 14 Here we are? 36 a Who hath 
put wisdom in the inward parts ? or who 
hath given understanding to the heart ? 

a Chap. 32. 8; Psa. 51. 6; Eccles. 2. 26. 



Another rare word, whose meaning 
also is difficult to determine. Its rad- 
ical idea, of insight, some of the best 
critics associate with mind or heart, 
and it is thus rendered. The context 
induces others to seek a meaning in 
the phenomena or powers of nature. 
The derivation of the word "uDfc^, heart, 

from n^t^, "to see," figuratively "to 

understand," is now generally admitted, 
and yet it has led to weak and insipid 
interpretations: such as, "phenomena 
caused by light," (Halm, Ewald;) "the 
full moon," (Dilimann;) "atmospheric 
phenomena," (Zockler, Hitzig;) while 
Conant, Schlottmann, Renan, Heng- 
stenberg, and others, properly ren- 
der as in the Authorized Version. 
The word is evidently cognate with 
ni s 3^D, (Psa. lxxiii, 7,) " thoughts,'" and 

seemingly justifies the view of G-ese- 
nius, (Thes. 1329,) that it signifies that 
which sees rather than that which is 
seen. The mention of the subtle light- 
ning not unnaturally suggests the sub- 
tler spiritual nature of man. If the 
wonderful endowments of a mental and 
moral being — powers infinitely superior 
to the brute forces of nature — are not 
alluded to in this verse, the discourse 
altogether ignores them; an omission 
simply incredible. The connexion of 
thought Schlottmann finds in the men- 
tion of the celestial laws and their rul- 
ing in the earth, which suggests most 
naturally that greater work of God, 
the making and implanting of the facul- 
ties which may comprehend his works. 
Hengstenberg finds the pivot of thought 
in wisdom, (hhokmah, verses 36 and 3*7,) 
of which man is the great embodiment. 
To say the least, the " putting wisdom 
(hhokmah) into " the dark clouds, and 
"the giving intelligence (binah, see note 
on xxviii, 12,) to" fiery meteors, full 
moons, or atmospheric phenomena of 
any kind, involves a medley which is 
no more to be tolerated in the Hebrew 
use of words or their modes of thought 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



245 



37 Who can number the clouds in wis- 
dom? or "who can stay the bottles of 
heaven, 38 1G When the dust " groweth 



15 Heb. who can cause to lie down. 16 Or, 

when the duot is turned into mire. 



than in our own. The interpretation 
of the Septuagint, from an apparently 
corrupted text, "And who has given 
woman skill in weaving, or knowledge 
of embroidery," may be mentioned as 
one of the many vagaries to which this 
text has given occasion. 

37. Number the clouds — A meta- 
phor taken from a military enrolment 
— same word as in 2 Sam. xxiv, 10. 
Who can stay the bottles of heav- 
en — Rather, the bottles of heaven, who 
inclines them? as in the margin, with 
the meaning, "As water is poured from 
a bottle when inclined, so when the 
clouds are full of rain they empty them- 
selves upon the earth." Eccles. xi, 3. 
Sir J. Herschel's explanation of the for- 
mation and descent of rain is as good, 
perhaps, as any yet proposed. " In 
whatever part of a cloud the original 
ascensional movement of the vapour 
ceases, the elementary globules of 
which it consists being abandoned to 
the action of gravity, begin to fall. By 
the theory of the resistance of fluids, 
the velocity of descent in air of a given 
density is as the square root of the di- 
ameter of the globule. The larger glob- 
ules, therefore, fall fastest, and if (as 
must happen) they overtake the slower 
ones they incorporate, and, the diameter 
being thereby increased, the descent be- 
comes more rapid, and the encounters 
more frequent, till at length the globule 
emerges from the lower surface of the 
cloud at the 'vapour plain,' as a drop 
of rain ; the size of the drops depending 
on the thickness of the cloud stratum 
and its densitjr." — Meteorology, s. v. 
Bottles of heaven — " This phrase," 
says Dr. Good, "is a direct Arabism 
for the clouds, and is to be found in 
every poet." Among the citations 
Schultens makes from the Arabic po- 
ets is the following translation : — 

A broad, deep cloud, that fed the rest, was nigh, 
And burst its bottle 'mid the warring sky. 

A figure of the south wind adorns the 
Temple of Winds at Athens, holding a 



into hardness, and the clods cleave last 
together ? 
39 b Wilt thou hunt the prey for the 

17 Hebrew, is poured. & Psalm 104. 21; 

14-5. 15. 

kind of pitcher (a swelling urceus) in 
his bared arms, as if it would deluge 
the earth. (See Wordsworth's Alliens 
and Attica, p. 153.) Scott observes that 
this image is similar to the inclined urn 
which the heathen poets place in the 
hand of a river god; the urn represents 
the fountain from which the river flows, 
and what fountains are to rivers the 
clouds are to rain. Dr. Hutchinson 
thinks that there is an allusion to the 
working of a Persian wheel, " the 
pitchers or bottles of which, as they 
come up, lie down or along, and so 
discharge their contents. As this dis- 
charge can only take place at a partic- 
ular moment, and in consequence of the 
proper working of the wheel, so the 
discharge from the clouds can only 
take place at the proper moment, when 
allowed by the Creator." 

38. When the dust. . .hardness — 
When dust is poured into a molten mass. 
The rain consolidates the dust. 

Second division — Job is confronted 

WITH THE ANIMAL WORLD, OF WHICH 
MAN IS THE HEAD AND MONARCH ; WITH 
THE MYSTERY OF LIFE, ITS PROPAGA- 
TION AND PRESERVATION; AND WITH 
THE UNERRING AND INFINITELY YARIED 
LAWS OF THE WORLD OF INSTINCT, 39- 
xxxix, 30. 
First long strophe — Beasts of the 

FIELD AND BIRDS OF THE AIR ARE 
ALIKE OBJECTS OF GOD'S FATHERLY CARE 
— A CARE WHICH NOT ONLY PROVIDES 
THEM WITH FOOD, BUT WATCHES OVER 
THEM DURING THE WHOLE PERIOD OF 

gestation, 39-xxxix, 8. 

In the following three long strophes 
the discussion is directed to the good- 
ness of God. 

a. Job is asked whether such as he 
would ever have provided meat for beasts 
and birds, for instance, such representa- 
tives of the brute world as the greedy lion 
and the carrion raven, 39-41. 

39, 40. As Jehovah now proceeds to 
speak of the mysteries of the animal 
kingdom, some (Luther) would make 



246 



JOB. 



lion ? or fill 18 the appetite of the young l wait ? 4 1 c Who pro videth for the raven 



lions, 40 When they couch in their 
dens, and abide in the covert to lie in 



18 Heb. the life. 



the 39th verse the beginning of a new 
chapter. The king of beasts is men- 
tioned first. Canst thou comprehend 
the instinct of the lioness, that guides 
her in taking prey for her whelps? or 
instruct the young lions how to pro- 
vide food for themselves ? They are 
taught like soldiers to " lurk " in am- 
bush. See note iv, 11. 

41. They wander for lack of meat 
— Better, (and) wander without food. 
The question includes the whole verse. 
"Of the raven," says Dr. Tristram, 
{Natural History,) " there are eight spe- 
cies found in Palestine. In no country 
are the species more numerous in indi- 
viduals. Of all the birds of Jerusalem 
the raven tribe are the most character- 
istic and conspicuous, though the larger 
species is quite outnumbered by its 
smaller companion. They are present 
everywhere to eye and ear, and the 
odours that float around remind us of 
their use. The raven is a bird of al- 
most world-wide distribution. It is 
found from Iceland to Japan." ... In 
turning to the kingdom of birds we 
should have expected the mention of 
their king, the eagle; but instead, it 
is, as in Luke xii, 24, the clamorous rav- 
en, with its hoarse croaking, that is 
singled out. Even this bird, filthy and 
ceremonially unclean, serves as an em- 
blem of God's protecting care and 
goodness. It was an olden belief, as 
appears in the works of Aristotle, ^Eli- 
an, and Philo, that the raven was cruel 
to its young, "driving them from the 
nest and compelling them to fly." 
(Pliny.) Even such ugly, raven-ous 
waifs God takes care of ; he hears their 
hateful cry and gives them food. Psa. 
cxlvii, 9. "Do not therefore, Job, 
imagine that because I afflict thee, 
therefore I do not love thee." — Chry- 
sosiom. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Job, who was so wise in the knowl- 
edge of the divine ways, and rashly 
ready to measure himself with God, is 
still plied with questions, now drawn 



his food ? when his young ones cry unto 
God, they wander for lack of meat. 

cPsa. 147. 9; Matt. 6.26. 



from the animate creation, about which, 
on account of its nearness to himself, 
it might be presumed that he would 
know something at least. He is ques- 
tioned concerning the laws that govern 
gestation ; the secret of the difference 
between wild and tame animals of the 
same genus ; the strangely dissimilar af- 
fections of birds, which, in structure, are 
like; the martial fury that leads thehorse, 
like man, to rejoice in the battle-field; 
the migratory instincts of rapacious 
birds ; also concerning the widely ex- 
tended law of creation that the life of one 
animal should be nourished by the death 
of another. Not one of the common- 
est questions which God asks can Job 
answer. " He finds that the nature with 
which he is acquainted as the herald of 
the creative and governing power of 
God is also the preacher of humility ; 
and, exalted as God the Creator and 
Ruler of the natural world is above 
Job's censure, so is he also as the au- 
thor of his affliction." — Delitzsch. Job, 
the instructor of Eloah, humbled to the 
dust, sees that the mystery of suffering 
is but one of the many mysteries of na- 
ture, and that he who cannot compre- 
hend the natural world is a presuma- 
ble fool for supposing that he can un- 
derstand the laws that govern the spir- 
itual world. The same flash of truth 
that discloses the meagerness of Job's 
mind helps to make manifest the wick- 
edness of his soul. The scheme is fast 
opening for the revealment of the deep 
truth that suffering is the path of glory, 
that via cruris, via luris, " the way of 
the cross is the way of light." 

j3. The questions thus far propounded 
must have profoundly impressed Job with 
a sense of his insignificance ; another, and 
more important view of himself, he is now 
to take in the mirror of nature — a no less 
vieiv than that of his consummate igno- 
rance. His attention is again directed to 
the brute creation, and he is asked a few 
plain questions, perhaps in irony, con- 
cerning the laws that govern the gestation 
and birth of animals with which he must 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



247 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

KNOWEST thou the time when the 
wild goats of the rock bring forth ? 
or caast thou mark when a the hinds do 
calve ? 2 Canst thou number the months 
that they fulfil ? or knowest thou the 
time when they bring forth? 3 They 



Psa. 29. 9 ; 



have been more or leas familiar. These 
laivs, he is made to feel, revolve in a 
sphere entirely independent of himself — 
the domain of divine forethought and ar- 
rangement; man can mark results, but 
knows not the secret principles which ren- 
der the gestation of one animal longer, or 
its parturition less difficult, than that of 
another, 1-4. 

1. Wild goats — The ibox, or rock- 
goat, (Heb., yaal, that is, climber,) was 
well known to the Jews, both in the 
Wilderness and in the Land of Promise. 
But. though familiar with the animal, 
they knew but little of its habits, ow- 
ing to its extreme wariness and wild- 
ness. ... In Arabia Petrsea the ibex is 
very common. It is generally found in 
small herds of eight or ten. (Tris- 
tram, Natural History.) Canst thou 
mark when, etc. — Rather, observesl 
thou the travail of the hinds f "The 
question here," as Bochartus well ob- 
serves, ; 'is not of idle and merely spec- 
ulative knowledge, but of that knowl- 
edge which belongs to God only, by 
which he not only knows all things, 
but directs and, governs them." Or. its 
object may be. in a most humiliating 
manner, to remind Job that the parturi^- 
tion of the mountain hind takes place 
without his foresight, intervention, or 
control. Thus, most moderns. Hinds 
— The female of the common stag. 
The reader is referred to Pliny's Nat- 
ural History, viii. 32, for the views of 
the ancients on this whole subject. 

3. Their sorrows — Used figurative- 
ly for the foetus. In like manner 
Arab poets call the human foetus 
"pangs." Euripides uses exactly the 
same expression as that of the text, 
pixjjaL udiva. " This purpose of nature 
is accomplished in them no less surely 
than in animals housed and watched 
with tenderness and care.'" — Conant. 
Compare ,lohn xvi, 21. 

4. Are in good liking — Become 



bow themselves, they bring forth their 
young ones, they cast out their sorrows. 
4 Their young ones are in good liking, 
they grow up with corn ; they go forth, 
and return not unto them. 5 Who 
hath sent out the wild ass free ? or who 
hath loosed the bands of the wild ass ? 



strong. With corn — Rather, in the 
ivilderness. Unto them — To their 
parents. A suggestive trait of the 
brute creation, that the offspring, when 
grown, is forever alienated from the 
parent as parent. The tender links 
that bind the child of a human being 
to its parent as long as life shall last, 
are unknown in the creation beneath 
us. The affection of the one race is 
eloquent and prophetic of immortality; 
the want of it in the other seems to in- 
dicate that this present life answers all 
the ends, and subserves all the pur- 
poses, of brute being. 

y. From animals who need no human 
care in the time of their extremity, the 
speaker now turns to creatures who de- 
spise man and rebel against all human in- 
terference. Various views (5-18) are pre- 
sented of the same general truth; viz., the 
wondrous difference of dispositions which 
prevails among animals who, in other re- 
spects, bear to each other a resemblance 
more or less close. Job may first account 
for the difference between the wild and, 
tame ass, 5-8. 

5. Wild ass — xnQ. See note on 

xxiv, 5. Two different Hebrew names 
are given for " wild ass," the one, as 
some suppose, pointing to its swiftness, 
the other to its slyness, two marked 
traits of the animal. Layard says, " In 
fleetness they equal the gazelle ; and 
to overtake them is a feat which only 
one or two of the most celebrated mares 
have been known to accomplish," 
(i. 325.) " It is almost impossible to 
take them when full grown," (iii, 270.) 
This agrees with the observation of 
Xenophon, that his horsemen could 
overtake them by no other means than 
bydividiug themselves into relays, and 
succeeding one another in the chase." — 
Anab., i, 5. The wild ass, which both 
Martial and Oppian call beautiful, so 
differs from the stupid tame ass, his 



248 



JOB. 



6 b Whose house I have made the wil- 
derness, and the l barren land his dwell- 
ings. 7 He scorneth the multitude of 
the city, neither regardeth he the crying 



b Chap. 24. 5 ; Jer. 2. 24 ; Hos. 8. 9.- 
places. 



-1 Heb. salt 



congener, as to call forth the humiliating- 
question concerning this wonderful dis- 
tinction between members of the same 
species. None but God, who "loosed 
the bands," gave freedom to this child 
of the desert. On the other hand, the 
ancient Egyptians " regarded the ass as 
unclean and impure, merely on account 
of the resemblance which they conceive 
it bears to Typho ; and in consequence 
of this notion, those cakes which they 
offer with their sacrifices during the 
two months Ptiuni and Phaophi, have 
the impression of an ass, bound, 
stamped upon them." — De Iside, etc., 
section 30. Wild ass, li"iy. Hitzig 

infers from the Aramaic colouring of 
this w r ord that it stood for an Aramaic 
variety of the species of the ass. 

6. Barren land — Literally, salt 
waste. The deserts in the East are 
frequently incrusted with salt. 

7. Multitude — Better, tumult. 

8. Range of the mountains — "ym\ 

rendered "range," if a verbal noun 
may mean "that which is seen," (on the 
mountain:) so Delitzsch and Umbreit. 
If a verb, it signifies, "He spies through 
the mountain," as his pasturage. (Dill- 
mann.) The celebrated naturalist Pallas 
observes that the wild ass is particularly 
fond of bare mountains. Thus closes a 
beautiful picture of the wondrous ranger 
of mountain and waste, who scorns 
the clamour of the city, and laughs at 
the driver with his long line of subject 
beasts. No wonder that the wild ass 
should stand as the type of sovereignty, 
and that kings, as Umbreit has shown, 
should not disdain to add his name to 
their own. 

Second long strophe — Job's atten- 
tion IS DIRECTED TO THE NONDESCRIPT 
AND UNTAMEABLE REEM, (WILD BULL.) 
AND TO THE OSTRICH. WITH HER STRANGE 
PROPERTIES OF STUPIDITY AND DEFI- 
CIENT AFFECTION, 9-18. 



2 of the driver. 8 The range of the moun- 
tains is his pasture, and he searcheth after 
every green thing. 9 Will the c unicorn 
be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy 



2 Heb. of 



exactor, chap. 3. 18. 
23.22; Deut, 33.17. 



-c Num. 



a. The reem, in its structure, resembles 
the ox — so much so as to be classed tender 
the same genus ; but no man can reduce 
him to the plough or harrow, or any ser- 
vile office. Job, perhaps, can account for 
so trifling a matter as this, that so much 
latent power of this creature ("because 
his strength is great ") should forever 
remain unavailable for man's use. 9-12. 

9. The unicorn — The word QV|, 
reem, occurs seven times in the Scrip- 
tures, and is invariably translated uni- 
corn, or unicorns, in accordance with 
the Septuagint: Num. xxiii, 22; Deut. 
xxxiii, 17; Job xxxix, 9, 10; Psa. 
xxii, 21; xxix, 6; xcii, 10 ; and Isa. 
xxxiv, 7. Among commentators and 
naturalists some few (Luther, F. A. A. 
Meyer, Rosenmuller, and Schlottmann) 
imagine that by this creature the unicorn 
is intended, but the unicorn is now re- 
garded by most naturalists as fabulous. 
Others (Jerome, Barnes, etc.) suppose 
that it is the rhinoceros. Others again 
(Delitzsch, Dillmann, Hitzig) conjecture 
that it is the oryx, (antelope leucoryx,) a 
species of gazelle, which Oppian de- 
scribes as "wild and untamable," and is 
found in Syria, Egypt, and the interior 
of Africa, and to the present da}' called 
r'im; while others, (Schultens, Ewald, 
Umbreit, Eobinson.) fix upon the buf- 
falo, a view which Dr. Wilson justly 
scouts, having seen the animal in the 
Huleh tamely yoked to the plough. 
{Lands of the Bible, ii, 167.) 

A careful examination of the pas- 
sages above mentioned will, we think, 
show, first, that the reem could not 
have been a one-horned animal, for in 
Deut. xxxiii, 17, the horns of the reem 
are made a ground of comparison ; sec- 
ondly, that the strength of the animal 
was in his horns, (Deut. xxxiii, 17; 
Psa. xxii, 21 ; xcii, 10,) which excludes 
the oryx or antelope, which have but 
little strength in the horn, and have to 
depend for their defence on their agil- 
ity ; thirdly, that it must have been of 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



249 



the bovine rather than the cervine spe- 
cies, which appears from demands of 
the parallelisms both in Deut. xxxiii, 17, 
His (Joseph's) glory is like the firstling of his 

BULLOCK, 

And his lioms are like the horns of a beem: 

and iu Psalm xxix, 6, 
lie maketh them also to skip like a calf, 
Ltbanon a»d Sirion like a young beem. 

The description (vs. 9-12) depicts the 
wonted labour of the tame ox, and ne- 
cessitates the taking this animal as a ba- 
sis of comparison, as much as the prece- 
ding passage (5-8) does the tame ass; 
and no less peremptorily requires a 
congener, which in this case must be 
bovine. Of the former existence of a 
monster answering all these conditions 
there are manifold evidences, though it 
is probable that the race has altogether 
perished. In the opinion of Dr. Tris- 
tram it once roamed freely through the 
forests of Palestine, and answered to 
the averochs of the old German, the 
urus of Caesar, the bos primigenius of 
naturalists. ""We have evidence," he 
says, " of the averochs in Germany down 
to the Chrisiian era. The two horns 
of the reem (unicorn) are the ten thou- 
sands of Ephraim and the thousands 
of Manasseh, both growing out of one 
head, Joseph. Deut. xxxiii, 17. This, 
then, entirely sets aside the fancy that 
the rhinoceros, which the Jews could 
scarcely have known, or anyone-horned 
creature, is intended. The monuments 
of Assyria represent it among the wild 
animals chased by the compeers of 
Semiramis and Sennacherib." — Nat. 
Hint, of Bible, p. 146. This learned 
naturalist thinks he has found bones 
of this extinct animal, (the primeval 
wild ox,) in a mass of bone brec- 
cia in the Lebanon, in the flooring of 
an ancient cave. See his Land of Is- 
rael, pp. 11, 12. Assuming, with Dr. 
Tristram and Prof. Owen, that the reem 
was probably one with the urns, it be- 
comes doubly interesting to turn to the 
description of this animal by Caesar. 
He says, the urus " are of a size little 
inferior to the elephant : in appearance, 
colour, and figure they resemble the 
bull; their strength and velocity are 
great; and they spare neither man nor 
beast that come in their way. Even 



their young are intractable and untam- 
able."— De Bello Gall, iv, 29. 

Recent philological discoveries tend 
to identify this animal, (the wild bull, bos 
primigenius, of the ancients,) with the 
reem of the Scriptures. It is now accept- 
ed by Assyrian scholars, such as Sayce, 
ISforris, Rodwell, that the ideogram for 
wild bull was rim or rimu. Sir H. 
Rawlinson thus translates the thirty- 
fourth section of the inscription of Tig- 
lath Pileser : " Under the auspices of 
Hercules, my guardian deity, four wild 
bulls, strong and fierce, in the desert, 
. . . with my long arrows tipped with 
iron, and with heavy blows, I took their 
lives. Their skin and their horns I 
brought to my city of Ashur." The 
inscription cited by Norris is : " Buchal 
rimi dan-nu-te," etc. — "Four wildbulls 
strong and fine ; their lives I cut off." — 
Assy r. Die, i, 81; likewise, ibid., i, 21. 



*£ rif"f*S 



The above Assyrian inscription is taken 
from the broken obelisk of Assur-nat- 
sir-pal, and is interpreted, " Rimi . . . 
sa pa-an . . . in nir Lib-na-a-ni i-duk" 
"Wild bulls which, opposite the land 
of the Hittites and at the foot of Leb- 
anon, he killed." " It appears nothing is 
wanting to show that the meaning of 
the Hebrew word reem is a wild bull, and 
that these animals existed in Palestine 
in historical times about 800 years be- 
fore Christ. . . . The reem is not unfre- 
quently expressed on the monuments as 
am' si, i.e., ' the horned reem ; ' 'si being 
used ideographicallyfor karnu, 'a horn,' 
the Hebrew keren." — W. Houghton. 

These wild bulls were hunted iu 
Palestine, as appears from the monu- 
ments. " The wild bull,'* says Layard, 
" from its frequent representation m the 
bass-reliefs, appears to have been con- 
sidered scarcely less formidable and no- 



250 



JOB. 



crib ? 10 Canst thou bind the unicorn 
with his band in the furrow ? or will he 
harrow the valleys after thee? 11 Wilt 
thou trust him, because his strength 

ble game than the lion. The king is 
seen contending with it, and warriors 
pursue it on horseback and on foot. In 
the embroideries on the garments of 



is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour 
to him? 12 Wilt thou believe him. 
that he will bring home thy seed, and 
gather it into thy barn? 13 Gravest 

the principal figures it is introduced in 
hunting scenes, and in groups which 
appear to have a mythic or symbolical 
meaning." — Nineveh ii, 429. See, also, 




KING- HUNTING WILD BULLS. 



Rawlinson's Ancient Hon., ii, pp. 513, 
514. 

10. With his band in the furrow 

— Literally, on the furrow of his cord: 
the sense of which is, according to 
Furst, " Canst thou bind the reemso that 
his draw-line is upon the ridge f the left 
rope being always on the ridge of the bed 

in making the furrow. The telem, 5?P, 

Arabic, tilem, here rendered furrow, 
was, according to the explanation of 
the Turkish kamus, "the ditch-like 
crack which the iron of the ploughman 
tears in the field," an explanation which 
Delitzsch approves ; but this does not 
well accord with the use of the same 



word in xxxi, 38, and Hos. x, 4. The 
pictorial representations on the monu- 
ments show that the ancient Egyptians 
bound their oxen to the plough by 
a cord fastened around the horns and 
tied to the yoke and the handle. ISee 
note on i, 14. 

11. Because his strength is great 
— The greater wonder, then, that man 
cannot avail himself of this strength to 
do his work. Labour — Rather, in the 
sense of the fruit of one's labour. 

12. Thy barn — Better, threshing 
floor. 

/3. The ostrich, resembling the stork in 
her stilt-like structure, the colour of her 
feathers, and gregarious habits, widely 



CHAPTER XXXTX. 



251 



thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks ? or 3 wings and feathers unto the ostrich ? 



3 Or, the feathers of 



differs from the stork in respect to care 
for her young, and yet, in one particular 
at least — that of fleetness — she ranks pre- 
eminently among creatures vastly wiser 
and more affectionate than she, 13-18. 
13. Peacocks — D"Orv The Hebrew 

signifies " cryings," "wailings," and 
should, as Bochartus has shown, be ren- 
dered " ostriches," the cry of which is a 
prolonged toail. said to be as loud as that 
of a lion. '■ The female ostriches," says 
Consul Wetzstein, '-are called i rena- 
nim,' not from the whirring of their 
wings when flapped about, but from 
their piercing, screeching cry." Job 
has before alluded to this peculiarity of 
the ostrich in xxx, 29, (see note,) where 
the word for ostrich is niJP, a howl, a 

cry; though others (Gesenius) make 
the root to signify " greed," " voracious- 
ness," which as properly expresses an- 
other equally marked characteristic. 
This camel-bird, as the Persians, the 
Greeks, (ZTpovdoK.uun'koc.) and the Ro- 
mans, (struihiocamelus,) call it on ac- 
count of its camel-like neck, still inhab- 
its the great Syrian desert; some are 
found in the Hauran, " and a few," 
says Burckhardt, " are taken almost 
every year, even within two days' jour- 
ney of Damascus. . . . The people of 
Aleppo sometimes bring home ostriches 
which they had killed at the distance 
of two or three days eastward." The 
feathers, to which special allusion is 
made in the- text, have always, on ac- 
count of their surpassing beauty, been 
held in great value. The male has 
black feathers, with white ends, except 
the tail feathers, which are wholly 
white. But the feathers of the female 
are spotted grey. -See Burckhardt, 
Notes on the Bedouins, i, p. 217. The 
feathers of the stork, on the other hand, 
are pure white, except the greater cov- 
erts, scapulars, and quill feathers, which 
are black. For some unknown reason 
the ostrich was held sacred by the ancient 
Assyrian, as is shown by its being fre- 
quently introduced on Babylonian and 
Assyrian cylinders, accompanied by the 
emblematical flower. It was also found 



the stork and ostrich. 



as an ornament on the robes of figures 
in the most ancient edifice at Nimroud. 
— Layard, Nineveh, etc., ii, 437. An 
ostrich feather was a symbol of the 
goddess of truth or justice. See note on 
xxxi, 6, and Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt, 
v, p. 216. The abrupt introduction of 
renanim, "the wailing ones," (ostrich,) 
is happily illustrated by Herder: "The 
ostrich, on its first rising to the view, 
is sketched with an expression of ea- 
gerness and exultation. Such is the 
feeling of surprise, and wonder, tuo, 
that the name is at first forgotten, and 
it presents itself to the sight as a winged 
giant, exulting in the race, and shout- 
ing for joy. What is stupid forgetful- 
ness in the bird appears as the wisdom 
of the Creator, by which he has kindly 
adapted it to its shy and timid life in 
the desert."— Heb. Poet, i, 102. The 
goodly wings unto the peacocks 
— Of this difficult verse Schul tens cites 
nineteen explanations ; his own, the 
twentieth, is now substantially accepted 
by Arnheim, Umbreit, Hengstenberg, 
Hitzig, Cook, (Speaker's Com.,) etc., as 
follows : — 

The iving of the ostrich waveth joyously,* 
Is it the iving and feathers of the stork ? 

In other words, "hath she the fond 
wing and plumage of the stork? " The 
Septuagint gave up the passage in de- 
spair, simply retaining the more diffi- 
cult Hebrew words, without any at- 
tempt at explanation. Their version is, 
Urepvt; Tepiroiuvuv vee?Maoa, eav ov'k- 
TidQri doida nal veoaa. literally, " a wing 
of delighted ones is Xeelassa, (Heb., 
nD^yj,) if she conceives [comprehends] 

AsisandNessa." Jerome's, though more 
intelligible, is quite as insipid : " The 
wing of the ostrich is like the wings 
of the falcon and the hawk." Among 
moderns, Ewald, Hirtzel, Delitzsch, etc., 
accord to HTDn, stork, its radical mean- 

t • - : 

ing of pious, a name the stork bore on 



* Homer says similarly of the cranes, which 
in some marked respects resemble the storks, 
"Thej- fly here and there, rejoicing in their 
wings." — Iliad, ii, 462. 



252 



JOB. 



14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust, 15 And 



account of her affectionate solicitude 
for her young ; and, making the word 
a predicate, read the second clause, " Is 
she pious, wing and feather ?" Words- 
worth understands the meaning to be, 
" The wing of the ostrich exults glori- 
ously ; she makes a great display of 
her flaunting plumage ; but does she use 
her wings for purposes of natural affec- 
tion for her offspring ? No." Which- 
ever of the two readings, that of Schul- 
tens, or that of Ewald, is adopted, the 
sense is not materially altered. The 
grammatical reasons given by Hitzig 
are quite decisive for the former. 

This chaptor has thus far traced resem- 
blances, marks of connotation, which 
bring the species together under the 
genus, and has pointed out differences 
of disposition or mode of life, and has 
impliedly asked Job to account for 
them, both for the difference between 
the wild and tame ass, and between the 
reem and his tame congener, the ox ; and 
now between the stork and the ostrich, 
wdiich are so like and yet so unlike. 
While the ostrich, as we have before 
Bfeen, in plumage and general make 
presents considerable resemblance to 
the stork, the contrast in disposition is 
perhaps greater than that between any 
other two species of birds. The one is 
affectionate ; builds " her house " in the 
fir-trees, (Psa. civ, 11 ;) and displays re- 
markable intelligence and a self-sacrific- 
ing devotion to her young that is almost 
without parallel among birds. These 
traits have everywhere been noted. 
The Romans followed the Hebrew in 
calling her the pious bird, avis pia. 
Pliny (book x, 31) informs us that in 
Thessaly it was a capital crime for any 
one to kill a stork. See, also, Aristotle, 
(Anim. ix, 13,) and^Elian, (Anim. iii, 23.) 
Both the ancient Egyptians and the 
Greeks made the stork the symbol of 
love to children. The former looked 
upon her with a reverence only infe- 
rior to that which they paid to the mys- 
tical ibis. Instances are on record in 
which the stork, in cases of danger, 
such as of fire, unable to remove her 
young, has remained and shared their 
fate. See Encyc. Brit, xvi, 799, eighth 



edition. On the other hand, the ostrich, 
whom the Arabs call an impious bird, 
displays traits the reverse of these, 
which the sacred writer proceeds to 
give at large. 

In illustration of the phrase, " the 
wing waveth joyously," the observation 
of Dr. Shaw upon an ostrich, taken and 
tamed, may be cited: "In the heat of 
the day, particularly, it would strut 
along the sunny side of the house with 
great majesty. It would be perpetu- 
ally fanning and priding itself with its 
quivering, expanded wings, and seem, at 
every turn, to admire and be in love 
with its shadow. Even at other times, 
whether walking about or resting it- 
self upon the ground, the wings would 
continue these fanning, vibratory mo- 
tions, as if they w^ere designed to miti- 
gate and assuage that extraordinary 
heat wherewith their bodies seem to 
be naturally affected." — Travels in Bar- 
bary, sec. ed., p. 454. Wings . . . feath- 
ers — " On the Darwin or Lucretian 
theory, her poor flapper, which she uses 
so much, ought to have become a 
warm, well-feathered pinion ages ago." 
— T. Lewis. 
14. Which — 3, nay: used in the sense 

of the Latin im?no, as in chap, xxii, 2. For 
instances of similar cases, see Noldius, 
Concord. Pariic, 369, 370. Leaveth 
her eggs in the earth — Livingstone's 
description of the ostrich forcibly illus- 
trates the text. " The ostrich begins to 
lay her eggs before she has fixed on a 
spot for a nest, which is only a hollow a 
few inches deep in the sand, and about a 
yard in diameter. Solitary eggs, named 
by the Bechuanas ' lesetla,' are thus 
found lying forsaken all over • the 
country, and become a prey to the 
jackal. She seems averse to risking a 
spot for a nest, and often lays her eggs 
in that of another ostrich, so that as 
many as forty-five have been found in 
one nest. . . . Both male and female 
assist in the incubations ; but the 
numbers of females beina: always great- 
est, it is probable that cases occur in 
which the females have entire charge." 
•—Livingstone, Travels in South Africa. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



253 



forgetteth that the foot may crush them, 
or that the wild beast may break them. 
16 She is d hardened against her young 



d Lam. 



The Arabs call the female bird Umm 
thdathia, (mother of thirty,) from the 
number of eggs, as a rule, she is sup- 
posed to lay. 

15. Forgetteth that the foot may- 
crush them — " Several eggs lie out 
of the nest, and are thought to be in- 
tended as food for the first of the 
newly-hatched brood till the rest come 
out and enable the whole to start in 
quest of food." — Ibid., -p. 172. "Among 
the very few polygamous birds," says 
Barron, " that are found in the state of 
nature, the ostrich is one. The male, 
distinguished by its glossy black feath- 
ers from the dusky gray female, is gen- 
erally seen with two or three, and fre- 
quently as many as five, of the latter. 
These females lay their eggs in one 
nest, to the number of ten or twelve 
each, which they hatch altogether, 
the male taking his turn, sitting on 
them among the rest. Between sixty 
and seventy eggs have been found in 
one nest, and if incubation has begun, 
a few are most commonly lying round 
the sides of the hole, having been 
thrown out by the birds, on finding the 
nest to contain more than it could con- 
veniently hold." — Travels in Southern 
Africa, p. 170. 

16. She is hardened against her 
young ones — More correctly, she deals 
hardly with her young. Dr. Tristram re- 
marks : " Though I did not myself see 
the eggs scattered on the surface, yet 
all my Arab friends assured me that it 
is the invariable habit of the bird so to 
place many of them ; and that far more 
are laid than are ever incubated. It is 
from this habit, most probably, that 
the want of parental instinct is laid to 
t'»e charge of the ostrich. At the 
same time, when surprised by man with 
the young, before they are able to run, 
the parent bird scuds off and leaves its 
offspring to its fate." — Natural History. 
p. 238. "On the least noise or trivial 
occasion," says Dr. Shaw, " she for- 
sakes her eggs or her young ones, to 
which, perhaps, she never returns." | 



ones, as though they were not hers : her 
labour is in vain without fear ; 17 Be- 
cause God hath deprived her of wisdom, 



The little ones are often to be met, " no 
bigger than well-grown pullets, half 
starved, straggling and moaning about, 
like so many distressed orphans, for 
their mother." — Travels in Barbary, 
p. 452. The ostrich was proverbial for 
its cruelty. (Lam. iv, 3.) Without 
fear — She feels no distress (literally, 
" fear ") at the view that her labour is in 
vain. " If the ostrich observes that its 
uest is discovered, it tramples upon its 
own eggs and makes its nest elsewhere." 
— Lichtenstein in Delitzsch. That she 
is not possessed of proper solicitude is 
given as an indirect reason why her la- 
bour is to so little purpose ; thus antic- 
ipating the more comprehensive reason 
given in the following verse. 

17. Because God hath deprived, 
etc. — Rather, For God made her for- 
getful of wisdom, (hhokmah,) and gave 
her no share in understanding, (binah.) 
The Arabs have a proverb, " Foolish as 
the ostrich," which might suffice for the 
illustration of theverse. Bochartus, how- 
ever, cites five instances of stupidity. 
One may be given from Livingstone : 
"The ostrich is generally seen quietly 
feeding on some spot where no one can 
approach him without being seen by h>s 
wary eye. As the wagon moves along 
far to the windward, he thinks it is in- 
tended to circumvent him, so he rushes 
up a mile or so from the leeward, and 
so near to the front oxen that one 
sometimes gets a shot at the silly 
bird. When he begins to run, all the 
game in sight follow his example. I 
have seen this folly taken advantage of 
when he was feeding quietly in a valley 
open at both ends. A number of men 
would commence running, as if to cut 
off his retreat from the end through 
which the wind came; and although 
he had the whole country, hundreds of 
miles, before him by going to the other 
end, on he madly rushed to get past 
the men, and so was speared. He 
never swerves from the course he once 
adopts, but only increases his speed." 
—S.nitk Africa, p. 171. See also Tris- 



254 



JOB. 



neither hath he e imparted to her under- 
standing. 1 8 What time she lifteth up 
herself on high, she scorneth the horse 
and his rider. 

1 9 Hast thou given the horse strength ? 



! Chap. 35. 11. 



Heb. terror 



tram, Nat. His., p. 238, and Wetzstei 
in Delitzsch, ii, pp. 341, 342. The dif" 
ference thus suggested between the 
ostrich and animals pre-eminent in un- 
derstanding must at the same time 
have impressed upon Job one of the 
manj r mysteries of the world of instinct; 
a world which Hume declares to be 
"inexplicable by all the disquisitions 
of human understanding." 

18. Lifteth up herself — Others read, 
lasheth herself] justifying the rendering 
by the feeble reason that her wings 
seem a lash to impel herself forward. 
Such " lashing of wing " would but faint- 
ly repeat the grander conception of 
verse 13, of " waving the wing joyously." 
It is now generally accepted, that the 
ostrich runs more swiftly than any 
other animal. Hence the Arab prov- 
erb, " swifter than an ostrich." Dr. 
Livingstone calculates the speed of the 
ostrich at twenty-six miles an hour, 
and its stride, when bounding at full 
speed, Tristram says is from twenty- 
two to twenty-eight feet. Xenophon 
furnishes a fine illustration of the Au- 
thorized Version, " But no one ever 
caught the ostrich, for in her flight she 
kept constantly drawing on the pur- 
suer, now running on foot, and again 
lifting herself up with her wings spread 
out, as though she had hoisted sails." 
Anabasis, i, 3. In keeping with na- 
ture's law of compensation, the swift- 
ness of this bird compensates for its 
stupidity. The horse and his rider 
— This casual mention of the horse 
and his rider prepares us. rhetorically, 
for the ensuing description of the war 
horse, " the only one, in this series, 
which refers to a tamed animal." — Zock- 
ler. 

Third long strophe — Further illus- 
trations FROM THE BRUTE CREATION, OF 
THE WON'DROUS WORKING OF GrOD. THE 
MAJESTIC HORSE DISPLAYS A TASTE FOR 
WAR; THE HAWK, LED BY UNERRING IN- 
STINCT, MIGRATES TO DISTANT LANDS; 



hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ? 
20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grass- 
hopper? the glory of his nostrils is * ter- 
rible. 2 1 5 He paweth in the valley, and 
rejoiceth in h is strength : f he goeth on 

5 Or, His feet cliff. — -fJer. 8. 6. 

WHILE THE KING OF BIRDS DEVOTES HIS 
KEENNESS OF VISION TO SEEKING CAR- 
RION FOR HIS PREY, 19-30. 

a. The allusion to the horse in the pre- 
ceding description of the ostrich (camel- 
bird) leads to a magnificent description 
of a noble animal useful to man every- 
where, even on his fields of blood. Job 
is asked whether it was he who endowed 
it with its noblest qualities, 19-25. 

19. Thunder — The rendering by Ge- 
senius and others of "terror " — "terror- 
striking mane," and by Ewald and Zock- 
lerof" quivering mane," is not so justifia- 
ble and vastly more prosaic than that of 
"thunder." This masterly touch — cloth- 
ing the neck with thunder — by the very 
indefiniteness of the image gives to the 
description a recognised element of sub- 
limity. The monuments of antiquity 
abound with pictorial representations 
of the war-horse, in every age the pride 
of the East. Next to man, the most 
important agent on the battlefield, he 
was prized too highly to be made a 
beast of draught. For descriptions of 
the horse by Homer and Virgil, see Dr. 
Clarke. 

20. Make him afraid — Make him 
bound or spring, like the locust. Com p. 
Joel ii, 4. It is a common saying 
among the Arabs, that " the horse acts 
the locust," i. e.. he leaps from place to 
place like the locust. The head of the 
latter so much resembles that of the 
horse that the Italians c<dl him cava- 
letta, little horse. Nostrils — Literally, 
snorting. Compare Jer. viii, 16. 

21. He paweth — The subject of 
this verb, which is in the plural, is un- 
certain, and is supposed by Cocceius, 
Ewald, and Zockler to be " the riders," 
who " explore " in the valley ; for 
this is the meaning they attach to the 
verb. Hitzig thinks that the word 
"iDn, "to paw," originally read -Qn, 

" gather together," and that the mid- 
dle letter 2 has been corrupted into a D, 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



255 



to meet 8 the armed men. 22 He mock- 
etli at fear, and is not affrighted ; neither 
turneth he back from the sword. 23 The 



and renders the phrase, " they form in 
troops in the plain, and it [the horse] 
rejoiceth in its strength." The prime 
meaning of the verb h'haphar is " to dig," 
as in iii, 21, and xi, 18, (on the latter of 
which see note,) and to represent the 
well-known action of a high-spirited 
charger, impatient of delay, is a much 
stronger word than our word " paweth." 
The classics embody the figure before 
us in more laboured descriptions, and 
more polished periods ; but they all fail 
of the sublime heights to which the sa- 
cred writer, teaching of commonest sub- 
jects, rises without effort. Thus writes 
Apollonius, born 253, B. C. : — 

As a war-horse, impatient for the battle, 
Neighing, beats the ground with bis hoofs. 

I,Kap6/j,tJ . . . upovei iredov. 

Also Virgil, (Georgic iii, 88.): — 
Cavat que 
Tellurem, et solido graviter sonat ungula 
cornu, 

And earth around 
Rings to his solid hoof, that wears the ground. 

^lian says of the war-horse, '• When 
he hears the sounding of the reins and 
the clattering of the bits, and sees the 
breast-plates and the forehead-pieces, 
he neighs, and, leaping, makes the 
ground to ring with his hoofs." Valley 
— Mentioned because cavalry are un- 
suited for fighting among the hills. 
Armed men — Oppian in like manner 
remarks o f the war-horse, that he has the 
courage to meet the armed men, birhoig. In 
modern times, however, a solid phalanx 
of infantry is quite equal to any onset of 
cavalry, illustrations of which are af- 
forded by the battles of the Pyramids 
and Waterloo. The Israelites, it is to 
be remembered, conquered Palestine on 
foot. They were a nation of infantry. 
In this respect they resembled the ear- 
ly Egyptians, who do not appear to 
have possessed any cavalry before the 
eighteenth dynasty; (see Rawlinson's 
Herodotus, ii, pp.* 152, 299.) and thus 
differed from other surrounding nations, 
such as the Ishmaehte. whose horse 
has always been his pride and his de- 



quiver rattleth against him, the glittering 
spear and the shield. 24 He swallow- 
eth the ground with fierceness and rage : 



fence; and from the Canaanite, who 
was famous for his horses and his 
chariots. The horsemen formed a no 
less important part of the Assyrian 
army than the charioteers. " Horsemen 
are seen in the most ancient sculp- 
tures in Nimroud, and disciplined bod- 
ies of cavalry were represented in the 
bass-reliefs of Kouyunjik." — Laijard. 
In the times of Solomon the horse 
appears as a right arm of Israelitish 
defence. 1 Kings x, 28 ; 2 Chronicles 
i, 16, 17 ; ix, 28. Mohammed had ev- 
idently read this description before 
writiDg the One Hundredth Sura of the 
Koran, which is entitled, " The war- 
horses waich run swiftly." It com- 
mences: "By the war-horses which 
run swiftly to the battle, with a pant- 
ing noise ; and by those which strike 
fire by dashing their hoofs against the 
stones ; and by those which make a 
sudden incursion on the enemy early 
in the morning, which make the dust 
fly under their rapid feet ; which pass 
through the hostile troops ; — verily, 
man is ungrateful unto the Lord ; and 
he is witness thereof." 

23. The quiver — Used metaphor- 
ically for its contents — the arrows. 
The glittering spear — Literally, the 
flame of a spear. Shield — Heb., kidhon. 
More properly "javelin," or "spear." 
See note xli, 29. Arrows and gleaming 
spears hurtle against him, and he turns 
not back. 

24 He swalloweth the ground 
— XtSr, swalloweth, from which KOJ, 

"bulrush" is derived, because of its 
sucking, or " swallowing," the water. 
See note, viii, 11. The Arab, in com- 
mon with the Eastern and classic 
poets, to the present day, applies the 
metaphor of the text to the horse. In 
like maimer Shakspeare: — 

And starting so, 
He seemed in running to devour the way. 
Henry I\ r ., Sec. Part. 

Believeth he — Fiirst, Hitzig, and oth- 
ers would read, pp^, standeth he still. 



25^ 



JOB. 



neither belie veth he that it is the sound 
of the trumpet. 25 He saith among the 
trumpets, g Ha, ha ! and he smelleth the 



g Psalm 



The reading of the text, believeth, is 
equally well supported, (Schlottmann, 
Conant, and Dillmann,) and is much 
more forcible. He cannot trust (be- 
lieve) his ears, so joyous is the trumpet 
blast. ^Eschylus says of the war-horse : 
" Impatiently he awaits the call of the 
trumpet." — Septem., etc., 394. Compare 
ix, 16 ; xxxix, 12. 

25. He saith among the trumpets 
— At every blast, (literally, "trumpet,") 
lie saith, Aha ! Smelleth the battle — 
A like instinct is attributed to the horse 
in Pliny — "He presages the battle." 
Layard, in his "New Discoveries," (p. 
330,) says : " Although docile as a lamb, 
and requiring no other guide than the 
halter, when the Arab mare hears the 
war-cry of the tribe, and sees the quiv- 
ering spear of her rider, her eyes glit- 
ter with fire, her blood-red nostrils 
open wide, her neck is nobly arched, 
aud her tail and mane are raised and 
spread out to the wind. The Bedawin 
proverb says, that a highbred mare, 
when at full speed, should hide her 
rider between her neck and her tail." 

8 Now that the splendid digression, 
setting before us the war-horse, is at an 
end, the thread of the subject is again 
taken up, and a new illustration given of 
diversities springing from similarities ; 
a simple subject, which Job has failed to 
elucidate. The haivlc and the eagle are 
marvellously alike in their structure, (both 
belong to the Falconida?.,) and yet the one 
is distinguished by a migratory instinct, 
while the other easily sits at the head of 
the bird creation, marked by wondrous 
powers of flight and no less wondrous 
vision, which, instead of leading it, as is 
the case with the hawk, on long and un- 
known journeys, serves rather for spying 
out an ignominious prey . 26-30. " From 
that which is here intimated, (to wit, 
that other animals must sacrifice their 
life in order to satisfy the bloodthirsty 
brood of an eaide,) do we not see that 
the suffering of a single creature might, 
in God's plan, be designed to benefit other 
creatures of God? '■' — Victor Andrea. 



battle afar off, the thunder of the cap- 
tains, and the shouting. 

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, 



70.3. 



26. The hawk — God next adduces 
the strange instinct which, " intelligent 
of seasons," leads to the migration of 
birds. The hawk is instanced, perhaps 
because he was esteemed sacred by 
some ancient nations. The hawk mi- 
grates southward during the latter 
part of September, "not in groups," 
says Dr. Thomson, (i, 506,) " as do 
cranes, geese, and storks ; but keeps 
passing for days in straggling lines, 
like scattered ranks of a routed army. 
Here and there, as far as eye can 
reach, they come, flying every one 
apart, but all going steadily to the south. 11 
Of the law that enables 

These aery caravans, high over seas 

Flying - , and over lands, 

To steer their annual voyage, borne oh winds, 

back to the very spot that gave them 
birth, may we not say, with Hooker, 
comprehensively and grandly, " See we 
not plainly that obedience of creatures 
to the law of nature is the stay of the 
whole world ? " The world of instinct, 
quite as much as that of reason, is em- 
blazoned within and without with 
marks of divine thought and wisdom. 
The ways of reason do not so much 
elude the grasp of the human mind as 
do those of instinct. The superior, 
superhuman thought by which a con- 
fessedly inferior world is imbued and 
animated, is sublimely declaratory of 
a G-od. For instance, the mathemat- 
ical (hexagonal) .figure in which the 
bee works, displaying outgoings of 
mind to which man has so slowly 
attained, no less than the stately, uu- 
deviating flight of the hawk, points 
upward to a divine mind — to an in- 
telligence which is not from the an- 
imals themselves, but which is a ne- 
cessity that has been laid upon them 
by a higher intelligence. The world 
of instinct proves to be "an inner de- 
sign, and omnipresent reason in things," 
and " in its proper spirit, it is an un- 
interrupted divine service, a thoughtful, 
intelligent glorification of that inex- 
haustible wisdom which reveals itself 



CHAPTER XXXJX. 



257 



and stretch her wings toward the south ? 

27 Doth the eagle mount up 7 at thy 
command, and u make her nest on high ? 

28 She dwelleth and abideth on the 
rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the 



7 Heb. by thy mouth. h Jer. 49. 16; Obad. 4. 



in nature." — Fichte. Job may be tacit- 
ly reminded of his own appeal to the 
brute creation. See xii, 7, with note. 

The wondrous instinct of the hawk 
evidently led to its being held sacred 
throughout the land of Egypt. In va- 
rious combinations the figure of the 
bird served for the function of Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics. See Bunsex, Egypt's 
Place, etc., i, 507, 517. It was sacred to 
Horus, (the Egyptian Apollo,) whose 
priests, according to iElian, (Hist, of 
Anim.. x, 14,) were called hieracobosci, 
or hawk-feeders, since it w r as their of- 
fice to take care of the sacred hawks. 

27. The eagle — Comp. Obadiah 4. 
The climax is reached in the eagle, 
king of birds, (compare the lion, king 
of beasts, with which the description 
commences, xxxviii, 39,) which, not- 
withstanding its home " is in the teeth 
of the rock," delights in blood. Another 
marvellous feature of instinct is thus 
presented, that he who flies so high 
should stoop so low, so that " where- 
soever the carcass is, there will the 
eagles be gathered together." Matthew 
xxiv. 28. Tristram observes that ea- 
gles will not kill their prey, if they can 
find it ready slain to their hand. Her 
nest — his nest. The gender is the same 
throughout the description. 

28. Crag of the rock — Literally, 
tooth of the rock. 

29. Her eyes behold afar — Homer 
accords to the eagle the keenest vision 
of all birds. (Iliad, xvii, 674.) Similar- 
ly, Horace, "sharp-sighted as an eagle." 
— Satire I, iii, 27. The Arabs have a 
proverb, " More quick sighted than the 
eagle," and they say, hyperbolically, 
that she can see a carcass at the distance 
of forty parasangs, or about one hun- 
dred and fifty miles. 

30. Where the slain are— Both the 
eagle and lion will feed ignominiously 
on a body found dead, as Winer abun- 
dantly shows. (Rvib., i, 21.) Burck- 
hardt, describing the warfare of the 

Vol. V.— 18 



strong place. 29 From thence she seek- 
eth the prey, and her eyes behold afar 
off. 30 Her young ones also suck up 
blood : and ' where the slain are, there 
is she. 



* Matt. 24. 28 ; Luke 17. 37. 



Bedawin, says that while the battle 
rages, and horsemen or camel-riders 
contend in single combat or mix in 
general fight, flying or pursuing, the 
Beni Atye, (a considerable tribe of 
Arabs.) frequently utter, with a loud 
voice, the following verses : — 

You birds with the bald heads, you rakham 

and badazy, 
If you desire buman flesh, be present on the day 

of combat. 

The rakham and hadazy are birds of 
prey, the former an eagle, the latter a 
falcon. — Bedouins, ii, 362. 

CHAPTER XL. 
God waits for Job to answer. A 
short, sharp question elicits from him 
the admission of his worthlessness. 
while in few and humble words he de- 
clines the attempt to answer God. 
Then follows- the most remarkable chal- 
lenge ever uttered to man r— let him who, 
for the vindication of his own right- 
eousness, condemns God, take upon him- 
self the majesty and attributes of De- 
ity. If he knows how the wicked should 
be punished let him take the bolts of 
divine vengeance into his hands — let 
him tread down the wicked and bind 
them in sheol. If he can do all this, 
God will confess to Job that his self- 
righteousness rests on a proper basis, 
and that he has power to save himself. 
But, first, behold behemoth ! Behold 
the creature before you aspire to be 
Creator or Saviour. He who knows 
the heart still sees in Job the elements of 
self-sufficiency and self righteousness, 
both of which are implied in the idea 
of self-saviour. Such a one must be 
brought deeper down into the valley 
of humiliation and self-abhorrence. 
Two hideous monsters are brought be- 
fore his view. They, as well as Job, 
were made by God. Herder calls be- 
hemoth and leviathan '-pillars of Her- 
cules at the end of the book, the non 
plus ultra of another world." Their 
O. T. 



258 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XL. 

MOREOVER the Lord answered 
Job, and said, 2 Shall he that 
a contendeth with the Almighty instruct 

a Chap. 33. 13. 

hidden meaning still defies our power 
to decipher. They may stand as carved 
obelisks of the purport of the preceding 
challenge to Job — subjugate the hip- 
popotamus and crocodile — both of which 
Plutarch (De Iside, Sec. 50) calls " most 
fierce and untamable " — before he es- 
says the government of the universe. 
Or they may serve as representatives 
of evil, or the evil forces of nature ; for 
both the hippopotamus and crocodile 
were regarded by the ancient Egyptian 
as Typhonian — types of evil. (Ibid.) 
See Excursus VIII, pages 219-281. Job 
has prided himself upon his knowl- 
edge of evil, and more especially the 
manner in which it should be punished. 
Here are monsters, types of evil; mas- 
ter these, comprehend these, then mas- 
ter and comprehend the evil of the 
universe. Very possibly they may 
be, as Zoekler thinks, symbols, not 
merely of the power but of the justice 
of God. " Job is compelled to see 
that there cannot be — and least of all 
in the administration of the Most High — 
a bare omnipotence disjoined from jus- 
tice and love." 

Jehovah's Second Address to Job, 
verses 1, 2. 

After a suitable pause, that the im- 
pression of the discourse may be deep- 
ened, during which humbled Job vent- 
ures no response, Jehovah makes a point- 
ed application of the preceding discourse 
to Job himself ver. 2. 

2. Shall he that contendeth — Will 
the censurer contend with the Almighty f 
Murmuring over the doings of God is 
nothing less than faultfinding with 
God himself. The censurer is sum- 
moned from his long-protracted silence 
by this terse and pungent, but kindly 
call, to answer the appeals of the Al- 
mighty. Job ought to be as ready to 
reason as he was to reprove; at least, 
to answer some one of the questions 
out of nature's catechism. It is signif- 
icant that the last words in this ad- 
dress, ''let i.im answer, - ' are, in the 



Mm? he that reproveth God, let him 
answer it. 

3 Then Job answered the Lord, and. 
said, 4 b Behold, I am vile ; what shall 



Ezra 9. 6 ; chap. 42. 6 ; Psa. 51. 4. 



original, the very verb that rang out 
so defiantly at the close of Job's pro- 
tracted defence (chap, xxxi, 35.) "Let 
the Almighty answer." Compare chap, 
xiii, 22 ; xxiii, 5. He that reprov- 
eth — ITSiD, a hiphil form, is used in a 

forensic sense, and signifies to argue, 
(Prov. xxx, 6,) prove; thence, in an of- 
fensive sense, to argue down, reprove, 
chastise. See note, chap, xvi, 21; and 
for other forms of the verb, vi, 25 ; xiii, 
15 ; xix, 5 ; xxii, 4 ; etc. Job, who at the 
outset bore the title in heaven of " God 
fearing," (chap, f, 1,) now hears the 
humiliating designation of " God's ac- 
cuser," (Hitzig,) or "one that sets God 
right." (Dillmann.) 

Job's Answer — His Self-humiliation 
and Confession, 4, 5. 

Job confesses that he is base, and that he 
has been foolish in his repeated speeches ; 
and, finally, retracting his arrogant chal- 
lenges of God, covenants with him that 
he will no longer contend with Deity, 4, 5. 

" From the marvellous in nature, Job 
now divines that which is marvellous 
in his affliction. His humiliation under 
the mysteries of nature, is at the same 
time humiliation under the mystery of 
affliction; and only now, when he* pen- 
itently reverses the mystery he has 
hitherto censured, is it time that its 
inner glory should be revealed to him. 
The bud is mature, and can now burst 
forth in order to disclose the blended 
colors of its natural beauty." — Deliizsch. 

4. Behold, I am vile — In the sense 
of mean, despicable : Tipf?; a word Job 
had in part applied to the wicked — 
"light (^>p) is he on the face of the 

waters." (Chap, xxiv, 18.) Job's sense 
of shame is quickened. He feels his 
folly; but is not yet sufficiently sensi 
ble of his spiritual deformity. Hence 
the necessity that God should speak 
again. The conciseness of the reply 
points to trouble within ; deep convic- 
tion is never wordy. It is thus with 



CHAPTER XL. 



259 



I answer thee? C I will lay mine hand 
upon ray mouth. 5 Once have I spo- 
ken ; but I will not answer: yea, twice ; 
but I will proceed no further. 

6 d Then answered the Lord unto Job 
out of the whirlwind, and said, 7 e Gird 



cChap. 



Psalm 39. 9. d Chap. 38. 1. 

e Chap. 38. 3. 



the cry " God be merciful to me, the sin- 
ner." Luke xviii, 13. Hand upon my 
mouth — See xxi, 5 ; xxix, 9. 
Jehovah's Third and Last Address 
to Job, chaps, xl, 7-xli, 34. 
First division — An ironical chal- 
lenge TO JOR, TO TAKE INTO HIS OWN 
HANDS THE REINS OF THE WORLD, AND 
CHIEFLY THE MORAL GOVERNMENT OF 
MEN', 7-14. 

Strophe a. Preliminary questions to 
Job, by implication demonstrating the rea- 
sonabltness and justness of the challenge 
God is about to make to Job, the repre- 
sentative grumbler against the divine gov- 
ernment, 7-9. 

6. Whirlwind — Storm, as before, 
(chap, xx xviii, 1,) but now without the 
article. 

7. Gird up. . .man — Same as chap, 
xxxviii, 3. The objects contemplated 
by the following discourse, are similar 
to those of the preceding discourses, 
and on this account begin with a like 
appeal to Job, whose condition is not 
yet that demanded by the grace of God 
in order to its complete work. Job's 
robes of righteousness hang in tatters, 
but he is not yet ready to cast them 
aside as " filthy rags." Isa. lxiv, 6. 

8. Wilt thou also disannul my 
judgment — The word DBS^ft, judg- 
ment, means also right; "the right 
I exercise in the government of the 
world, is equivalent to my righteous- 
ness in the same." — Hirtzd. As used by 
Elihu, and the Almighty also, the term 
involves both moral and physical power ; 
for the ideas of might and right have 
been closely blended in the Elihuistic 
section, and thus far in the Jehovistic 
section. Elihu, it will be remembered 
begins his third discourse (xxxv, 2) 
with the significant question, " Th'mk- 
est thou this to be right, LDS^E^, 

[third word of first clause,] that thou 



up thy loins now like a man : f I will de- 
mand of thee, and declare thou unto me. 
8 °'Wilt thou also disannul my judg- 
ment ? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou 
mayest be righteous? 9 Hast thou an 
arm like God? or canst thou thunder 



./Chapter 42. 4. a Psalm 51. 4 ; 

Romans 3. 4. 

saidst," etc., and now the third ad- 
dress of the Almighty opens with the 
question, "Wilt thou altogether annul 
my right?" in which this word appears 
in the same order as in Elihu. Wilt 
thou "reduce to nothing my right?" 
" altogether destroy it? " 1ER from pa- 

rar, " to break in pieces," " crush; " a • 
word which corresponds to Karapyeu, to 
"make void," (Rom. iii, 31,) to "de- 
stroy," to "do away," — a word used 
twenty-five times in Paul's epistles. The 
word mishpat, "judgment," "right," 
appearing frequently in Job, (for varied 
meanings, see viii, 3, ix, 32, xiii, 18, 
xxiii, 4, xxvii, 2, etc.,) furnishes a key, 
we think, to the mystery of the monsters 
soon to be exposed to our view, viz : — 
instead of questioning my right (moral 
power) in the moral world, as implied in 
the challenge, try your right (mental or 
physical power) in the natural world. 
To both appeals Job has no reply to 
make ; see further on verse 15. That 
thou mayest be righteous — Self jus- 
tification under the chastening of the 
Almighty arraigns the judgment and 
justice of God. It calls in question the 
righteousness of the divine ways, and 
thereby virtually condemns God. It as- 
sumes to know more than Jehovah, and 
justifies the challenge he now makes 
to Job. If Job be wiser than Deity, he 
must possess all the attributes of God 
— for instance, he must be almighty, 
he must have "an arm like God." 

9. An arm like Gcd — The arm of 
the Lord is the symbol of omnipotence, 
as in Isa. li, 9, in which, in sublime 
strains. Jehovah is represented as per- 
sonifying his own omnipotence. 

Strophe b. JoVs practical denial of 
God's righteousness, and presumptuous 
readiness to supersede the righteous?iess 
of God by that of his own, leads to a chal- 
lenge without parallel in ail literature : 
that once and for all, instead of indulg- 



260 



JOB. 



with h a voice like him ? 10 i Deck thy- 
self now with majesty and excellency ; 
and array thyself with glory and beauty. 
11 Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath : 
and behold every one that is proud, and 
abase hirn. 12 Look on every one that 
is k proud, and bring him low ; and tread 



h Chap. 37. 4 ; Psa. 29. 



Psa. 93. 1 ; 104. 1. 



ing in chimerical schemes of divine gov- 
ernment, man should array himself in the 
attributes of Deity, and assume the summa- 
ry punishment of the wicked in this and 
in the next world, 10-14. 

The nearest classical approach to the 
sublime conception of the text is the 
fatal aspiration of Phaethon to drive the 
chariot of his father, Helios, the sun. 
Ovid, Metamor., ii, 1-337. 

10. Array. . .glory and beauty— 
The Hebrew words re-appear in the 
same order as attributes of Deity in 
Psa. civ, 1, that short but magnificent 
prelude to what has been called the 
"inspired oratorio of creation." If Job 
be equal to God in righteousness and 
wisdom, let him attire himself in the 
essential splendour and glory of Deity. 

11. Cast abroad ... thy wrath — 
Literally, Let the outhreakings of thy 
wrath pour forth. A solemnly promi- 
nent thought in this personification of 
Job as deity is this, that wrath belongs 
to God. And abase him — A constant- 
ly recurring conception in Oriental and 
classical literature represents the work of 
Deity to be, the abasement of the proud. 
The answer of ^Esop to Chilon, who 
asked, "What is God engaged, in do- 
ing?" — that "He is abasing the high 
and lifting up the low," Bayle calb 
"the epitome of human history," and 
says that a book might be written " con- 
cerning the centre of moral oscillation." 

12. In their place — Same as xxxvi, 
20. See note. 

13. The dust is used for the grave, 
as in xvii, 16. Compare Psa, xxii, 15; 
xxx, 9. Bind their faces — Clarke and 
Carey think there is here an allusion to 
the bandaging of mummies. Pettigrew 
(in his work on Mummies, p. 89) speaks 
of such, in whose preparation more than 
one thousand yards of cloth were used. 
The bandaging of che head prior to 
burial was quite common among Ori- 



down the wicked in their place. 1 3 Hide 
them in the dust together ; and bind 
their faces in secret. 14 Then will I 
also confess unto thee that thine own 
right hand can save thee. 

15 Behold now 1 behemoth, which I 
made with thee ; he eateth grass as an ox. 



Tc Isa. 2. 12. 1 Or, the elephant, as some think. 



ental nations, so that there is no need 
of confining the allusion to the mummy. 
Job is challenged to exert the power of 
death as God exerts it ; to send forth 
that unseen, baleful, and omnipresent 
spirit of destruction which is ever remov- 
ing our race to the hidden realms of the 
dead. In secret — Some suppose to 
refer to sheol. Job must have been re- 
minded of his outrageous charge against 
Deity, that he " covereth the faces of the 
judges " of the earth, ix, 24. 

14. Confess unto — The Hebrew 
also means praise, and is thus rendered 
by Ewald, Delitzsch, etc. If Job can 
do all this which God has suggested, 
then God will acknowledge that he 
is not only great in speech and fault- 
finding, (Hirtzel,) but that he is mighty 
to " save himself," and able to carry into 
execution his inflated ideas of justice. 

Second division — A humiliating de- 
scription OF TWO AMPHIBIOUS MON- 
sters, in physical strength vastly 
Job's superiors, behemoth and levi- 
athan, WHICH IN MANY RESPECTS RE- 
SEMBLE EACH OTHER, BUT IN HABITS AND 
MODE OF LIFE RADICALLY DIFFER, Ver. 15 

-xli, 34 ; a carrying forward of the main 
thought of chap, xxxix. See p. 252. 

Strophe a. First: Behemoth, first- 
ling of the ways of God, mighty in 
his strength and martial in his con- 
struction, BUT A PEACEFUL COMPANION 
OF THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD, 15-24. 

These and similar contrarieties, which 
verse 15 in brief sets forth,- and which 
also antedate Job's puny arrival in the 
world, he may enter side by side with 
his perplexities of providence, and first 
attempt their solution. 

a. A physical description of this won- 
derful animal. 15-18. 

15. Behold now behemoth — See 
Excursus VIII, page 274. The trausition 
is easy, as even Dillmann acknowledges, 
notwithstanding he doubts the authen- 



CHAPTER XL. 



261 



16 Lo now. his strength is in his loins, | sinews of his stones are wrapped together, 
and his force is in the navel of his belly. I 18 His bones are as strong pieces of 



17 2 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the 



2 Or. He 



ticity of the entire section. Delitzsch 
thus links it with the preceding appeal: 
" Try it only for once — this is the col- 
lective thought — to act like me in the 
execution of penal justice, I would 
praise thee. That he cannot do it, and 
yet ventures with his short-sightedness 
and feebleness to charge God's rule with 
injustice, the following pictures of for- 
eign animals are now further intended 
to make evident to him." There is, we 
think, a deeper spiritual relationship 
between the solemn challenge and the 
behemoth-leviathanistic section, than 
Delitzsch recognises. That Job is not 
mighty to save, but helplessly impotent 
in spiritual matters, God proceeds forci- 
bly to impress upon his mind by a view 
of two monsters of the brute creation, 
who despise and defy the power of man. 
Before Job makes himself bold to take 
the moral government of the world in- 
to his hands, he might better try his 
strength upon the controlling and sub- 
duing of some of the creatures God 
has made. Let him first take a view of 
himself in the mirror of the animal cre- 
ation — ' ; a mirror of morals, now warn- 
ing, now encouraging and shaming us ; 
a gallery of pictures, ethical and horta- 
tory, collected for men by God himself." 
— Zockler. The fathers, and some mod- 
erns, have given a spiritual interpreta- 
tion to these lengthened descriptions, 
and found in behemoth and leviathan a 
figurative representation of our ghostly 
enemy himself. The most of recent com- 
mentators, however, see in this divine 
portraiture of th°se two creatures a set- 
ting forth of God's infinite power to 
carry out the purposes of his provi- 
dence. If the power and wisdom blend- 
ed together in the creation of such ugly, 
huge, and repulsive beings, are infinitely 
beyond Job's comprehension, how much 
more that providence which embraces all 
earthly creatures, all existence, and 
every grade of being, superhuman and 
angelic. Made with thee — A similar 
form of expression appears in Ecc. ii, 16 ; 
How dietli the wise ? with the fool ! i. e., 



brass ; his bones are like bars of iron. 

setteth up. 

as well as the fool. A pertinent rebuke 
to Job's pride. This monster is God's 
creature no less than Job, and in some 
respects vastly Job's superior. He 
eateth grass — The marvel is, that so 
powerful an animal, instead of being 
carnivorous, should be strictly grami- 
nivorous. In his frequent inland ex- 
cursions at night he makes sad havoc 
among the rice-fields and the cultivated 
grounds along the Nile. "At every 
turn," says Gordon Cummings, p. 297, 
"there occurred .deep, still pools, and 
occasionally sandy islands, densely clad 
with lofty reeds. Above and beyond 
these reeds stood trees of immense age, 
beneath which grew a rank kind of 
grass on which the sea-cow [hippopot- 
amus] delights to pasture." 

16. Navel — Sinews; "The loins and 
the belly are mentioned because they im- 
mediately call up to the imagination the 
form of the beast's huge circumference, 
and of the mighty pillar-like feet, the 
whole assuming a wonderful and almost 
quadrangular aspect. " — Schlo itman. 

IT. Like a cedar — Short and firm 
though the tail may be, it is swayed by the 
volition of the vast animal like a cedar 
bough by the wind. The interpretation 
turns on f*£n, moveth, the fundamental 

meaning of which is "to will," "move 
at pleasure." The name for cedar, f)X, 

"has been handed down on the spot 
[Lebanon] intact throughout all the 
changes of language, and the name arz 
is never applied by the natives to any 
tree but the true cedar." — Tristram. 
See farther his Land of Israel, 628-632. 
The sinews, etc. — Rather, The sinews of 
his thighs. Are wrapped together — 
IjnK^. Better, knit together. According 

to Gesenius and Delitzsch the cognate 
noun D'O'Hfc^, signifies " vine, tendrils ; " 

the speaker evidently choosing this 
word on account of its beautiful appro- 
priateness for expressing complex and 
delicate intertwining of texture. 

18. His bones. . .strong pieces of 



262 



JOB. 



19 He is the chief of the ways of God ; 
he that made him can make his sword 

ZPsa. 



brass, etc. — Although he eat grass, his 
bones are as tubes of brass — are like 
hammered bars of iron. The second 
word rendered bones D'TDIJ, may mean 

"ribs," in contrast with the hollow 
bones before spoken of. 

/3. A descrijition of the strange life and 
habits of this powerful beast, which, though 
undaunted by the river flood, is easily 
captured and destroyed by the guile of 
man, 19-24. 

19. The chief of the ways of God 
— He is a chief, JV£>JOi a firstling, per- 
haps masterpiece of God's creative en- 
ergy. The allusion seems to be to the 
immense bulk, possibly to his type as 
being that of the earliest of the extinct 
pachydermata. Jewish and patristic 
commentators found on this expression, 
"firstling of God's ways," a symbolic 
representation of Satan. Can make 
his sword to approach — Rather, Fur- 
nished \liini] his svjord. Thus, essen- 
tially, Bochartus,Umbreit, Schlottmann, 
Renan, Zockler, etc. Dillmann's render- 
ing, " which was created so as to attach 
thereon a sword," gives a sense weak 
and clumsy, which by no means satis- 
fies his proposed pointing. The utterly 
irreconcilable renderings of the Septua- 
gint, " made to be mocked at (kyKaTaizai- 
£eodat) by the angels ; " and of Ewald, 
"Yet his Maker blunts his sword," 
serve only to show the contrariety of 
views that have been taken of this vexed 
passage. Delitzsch well says, " It is not 
meant that he reached his sword to behe. 
moth, but (on which account \p is inten- 
tionally wanting) that he brought forth, 
i. e., created, its (behemoth's) peculiar 
sword, viz. : the gigantic incisors ranged 
opposite one another." . . . The happy 
paraphrase of the elegant poet Sandys, 
early (1638) embodied the true sense: 

Of God's great works the chief, lo ! he who made 
This behemoth, hath armed him with a blade. 
He feeds on lofty hills ; lives not by prey ; 
About this gentle prince the subjects play. 

The lower jaw of this animal is pro- 
vided with enormous ripping, chisel-like 
canines. (Tristram.) " With these ap- 



to approach unto Mm. 20 Surely the 
mountains ' bring him forth food, where 

104. 14. 

parently combined teeth the hippopota- 
mus can cut the grass as neatly as if it 
were mown with the scythe, and is able 
to sever a tolerably stout and thick 
stem." — Wood, Mammalia, p. 762. He 
also states that in anger it has been 
known to bite a man completely in two. 
(Bib. Animals, page 322.) Riippel, the 
German naturalist, captured one of these 
animals measuring from the snout to the 
end of the tail fifteen feet ; his tusks, from 
the roots to the point, along the exter- 
nal curve, being twenty-eight inches in 
length. It is an interesting coincidence 
that the sword should appear as a char- 
acteristic of this animal, in its hiero- 
glyphic name inscribed on Egyptian 
monuments in an age prior to that of 
Moses. The third figure from the left 



• 1~J>%& 



is a good representation of the ancient 
Egyptian scythe or reaping-hook, as de- 
picted on the monuments, and at the 
same time of the tusk of the hippopot- 
amus. • See Excursus TUT, p. 275. Ni- 
cander, a Greek poet who lived in the 
second century B. C, treating of the hip- 
popotamus, speaks of his "destructive 
sword, or scythe," nanr/v .... upirnv. 
— Theriaca, 566. Divinely equipped 
with a sword, he bears the insignia of a 
warrior; brought to the test, he proves 
to be a peaceful grazer of the fields ; his 
sword he wields, not that he may de- 
stroy life, but that he may reap the ten- 
der and succulent growths of the marsh. 
Labelled a warrior for nature's battle- 
field, he appears simply a successful 
forager. Other interpreters, (T. Lewis 
and Canon Cook,) accept the author- 
ized version, and understand that the 
monster is impenetrable by the sword 
of man. The latter cites a very ancient 
Egyptian inscription: "The tepi, (i. e., 
hippopotamus,) the lord of terrors m 
the water, which man can not approach 
unto." 

20. Surely — Yet; usedadversatively. 
The mountains — Ezekiel (xliii, 1 5) calls 
the altar a "in, "mountain" of God. 



CHAPTER XL 



263 



all the beasts of the field play. 21 He : ow ; the willows of the brook compass 
lieth under the shady trees, in the cov- him about. 23 Behold, 3 he drinketh 
ert of the reed, and fens. 22 The up a river, and hasteth not: he trust- 
shady trees cover him with their shad- eth that he can draw up Jordan into 



3Heb.,/i<? oppresseth. 



The word D , ~in may also mean "hills." 

• T 

In the Praeneste pavement, hippopota- 
mi are pictured on eminences. " Not 
only do these animals visit the margin 
of the river," says Sir Samuel Baker, 
"but they wander at night to great dis- 
tances from the water, attracted by good 
pasturage ; and, although clumsy and 
ungainly in appearance, they clamber up 
steep banks and precipitous ravines with 
astonishing power and ease. In places 
where they are perfectly undisturbed, 
they not only enjoy themselves in the 
sunshine by basking half asleep upon the 
surface of the water, but they lie upon 
the shore, beneath the shady trees, upon 
the river's brink. I have seen them 
when disturbed by our sudden arrival 
during the march, take a leap from a 
bank, about twenty feet perpendicular 
depth, into the water below." . . . — Nik 
Tributaries of Abyssinia, page 342. The 
mountain ranges that skirt the Nile in 
some places approach the river very 
closely. Where all the beasts of the 
field play — All authorities attest the 
peaceable disposition of this animal, ex- 
cept when hunted by man. The distin- 
guished traveller above quoted remarks: 
" Although the hippopotamus is general- 
ly harmless, the solitary old bulls are ex- 
tremely vicious, especially when in the 
water. I have frequently known them 
charge a boat, and I have myself nar- 
rowly escaped being upset in a canoe 
bv one of these creatures, without the 
slightest provocation. The females are 
extremely shy and harmless, and they are 
most affectionate mothers. The only 
instances I have known of a female 
attacking a man have been those in 
which the calf had been stolen." — Ibid., 
page 340. 

21. Shady trees — Lotus trees. The 
lotas silcestris, a thorny shrub, bearing 
fruit-like plumes growing abundantly in 
Syria, Arabia, and along the banks of the j 
upper Nile. The reed — Heb., kaneh ; 
Greek and Latin, canna, from which I 



probably comes our own word cane. It is 
a shrub plant, witli a knotty root, out of 
which spring many long, hollow stems; 
the arundo donax of Linnaeus, which 
was common on the banks of the Nile. 
Several species of reed still grow along 
the Jordan as well as the Nile. Ac- 
cording to Rosen miiller, (Biblical Bota- 
ny, p. 185,) the Hebrews used the word 
kaneh for reeds in general, and agmon 
for rushes, as in xli, 2, which see ; also 
xli, 20. And fens — Bitsah, rendered 
mire in viii, 11. Wilkinson gives a 
pictorial representation from the monu- 
ments, of this animal lying among tall 
reeds and beneath the shade of the 
lotus. (Ancient Egyptians, iii, 71.) 

22. The willows — A kind of weep- 
ing willow, (salix Balnjlonica,) same as 
in Psa. cxxxvii, 2. Of the new Israel, 
Isaiah tenderly says, they shall spring- 
up as " willows (ibid.) by the water 
courses." Chap, xliv, 4. 

23. Behold, he drinketh. . .Jordan 
into his mouth — Behold the river swell- 
eth, he trembleth not: he trusteth, though 
a Jordan rush to his mouth. By making 
the river the object rather than the 
subject of the verb p£JJJ, oppress, (mar- 
gin.) '• do violence,' 1 ' 1 " stcell" the A. Y. ob- 
scures the true sense. The word 'ha- 
shak, "swell," is now by almost univer- 
sal consent admitted to be used of the 
river metaphorically, and to indicate the 
violence that comes from a flood. With 
this agrees the Septuagint. "should there 
come a flood he would not regard it." 
In like manner the Syriac and Arabic. 
Trusteth — Is confident; partly from 
the fact that the water is his habitat. 
That — 3, though; thus Noldius. Being 

amphibious, he is at home in the water 
as well as on the land, and is not driven 
away by any flood. His comparative 
serenity at the sight of a flood arises 
rather from his natural sluggishness 
than from his innate courageousness. 
With this agree Dr. Livingstone*s ob- 
servations: "The rapids in that part of 



264: 



JOB. 



his mouth. 24 4 He taketh it with his eyes : Jiis nose pierceth through snares 



4 Or, Will any lake him in his sight-, or 



the river [the Leeambye] are relieved 
by several reaches of still, deep water, 
fifteen or tw r enty miles lfmg. In these, 
very large herds of hippopotami are 
seen, and the deep furrows they make 
in ascending the banks to graze during 
the nights, are everywhere apparent. 
They are guided back to the water by 
the scent, but a long continued pouring 
rain makes it impossible for them to 
perceive, by that means, in which direc- 
tion the river lies, and they are found 
bewildered on the land. The hunters 
take advantage of their helplessness on 
these occasions to kill them. It is im- 
possible to judge of the numbers in a 
herd, for they are almost always hidden 
beneath the waters ; but as they require 
to come up every few minutes to 
breathe, when there is a constant suc- 
cession of heads thrown up, then the 
herd is supposed to be large. They 
love a still reach of the stream, as in the 
more rapid parts of the channel they are 
floated down so rapidly that much ex- 
ertion is necessary to regain the dis- 
tance lost, by frequently swimming up 
again. Such constant exertion disturbs 
them in their nap. They prefer to remain 
by day in a drowsy, yawning state, and, 
though their eyes are open, they take 
but little notice of things at a distance. 
The males utter a long succession of 
snorting grunts which may be heard a 
mile off. .... In the rivers of Loncla, 
where they are in much danger of being 
shot, even the hippopotamus gains wit 
by experience." . . . (Trav. in South 
Africa, 261, 262.) "They spend most of 
their time in the w r ater, lolling about in 
a listless, dreamy manner. When they 
come out of the river by night they 
crop off the soft, succulent grass very 
neatly. When they blow, they puff up 
the wrater about three feet high." — Ibid., 
284. With greater particularity Sir 
Samuel Baker remarks : " Although the 
animal is amphibious, he requires a 
large and constant supply of air; the 
lungs are of enormous size, and he in- 
variably inflates them before diving. 
From five to eight minutes is the time 
that he usuallv remains under water. 



bore his nose with a gin ? chap. 41. 1, 



He then comes to the surface and ex- 
pends the air by blowing; he again re- 
fills the lungs almost instantaneously, 
and, if frightened, he sinks immediately. 
In places where they have become ex- 
ceedingly shy from being bunted or fired 
at, they seldom expose the head above 
the surface, but merely protrude the 
nose, to breathe through the nostrils. 
It is then impossible to shoot them." — 
Nile Tributaries, p. 341. Jordan — Here 
used generically for any turbulent riv- 
er, whose sudden overflow is an occa- 
sion of fear to the wild beasts along its 
banks. Dr. Tristram says of a sudden 
rise of the Jordan : " By measurement, 
we found that the river had been lately 
fourteen feet higher than its present 
margin, and yet it was still many feet 
above its ordinary level. . . . Every- 
where are traces of wild boar, hyena, 
and jackal, washed probably out of their 
usual lairs, and taking refuge in the 
higher grounds." — Land of Israel, page 
223. The original family relationship 
of the Hebrew Yar-den (Jordan) to the 
Egyptian Jor or Aur, words used for the 
Nile, may have possibly led to its appear- 
ance in the text. See on xxviii, 10. 

24. He taketh it with his eyes — 
Before his eyes do they take him : liter- 
ally, in his eyes, one takes him. So 
Ewald, Conant, Hitzig, etc. The slug- 
gish, peaceable disposition of this beast 
(verses 20, 21) exposes him to easy 
capture. With the same indifference 
with which he floated with the floods 
he surveys preparations made for his 
capture before his very eyes. Im- 
mense powers of resistance is he en- 
dowed with; but these, owing to the 
sluggishness of his nature, lie in abey- 
ance. His nose pierceth through 
snares — His nose is pierced with snares ; 
or, as Gresenius and Furst express it, 
"with hooks; " literally, one pierces the 
nose with hooks. The sense, therefore, 
is similar to that of 2 Kings xix. 28, 
w^here Jehovah threatens Sennacherib, 
"I will put my hook in thy nose. - ' 
This interpretation is also that of the 
Septuagint, ''In his sight, one shall rake 
him ; he shall catch him with a cord 



CHAPTER XL. 



265 



and pierce his nose." In like manner, 
the Chaldee and Vulgate versions. 
Others (Rosenmiiller, Hirtzel, Welle) 
read the verse as an ironical challenge, 
" Jnst catch him while he is looking. 
with snares let one pierce his nose." 
(Delitzsch:) while others regard the 
passage as an interrogation, denoting 
the extreme difficulty of taking the ani- 
mal. The older commentators were part- 
ly induced to take such a view of this 
verse, from the supposition that the 
beast is bellicose and difficult of capture, 
which is really the case only in excep- 
tional instances, such as those produced 
by Ruppell (Reisen in Nubien, 52, seq.) 
and Sir Samuel Baker, (Ismalia, 37, 120 ;) 
and more specifically when the mother is 
robbed of her young, as in Livingstone. 
Ibid., p. 537. (See ver. 20.) The latter 
case of offensive warfare is so unusual 



an occurrence, says Livingstone, that his 
men, when once attacked by a hippo- 
potamus, exclaimed 'Is the beast mad? ' 
Stickel, (p. 219, 220,) shows satisfactori- 
ly and at large, that neither the interrog- 
ative nor the ironical rendering of the 
passage is justified by the usage of Job, 
or by the laws of the language. In illus- 
tration of the A. V. it may be proper to 
cite "Wood (Bible Animals, p. 327,) who 
says, " This faculty of detecting snares, 
is one of the chief characteristics of 
the hippopotamus, when it lives near 
places inhabited by mankind, who are 
always doing their best to destroy it." 
Oddly enough, Pliny remaiks of the 
animal, that " it enters the field back- 
wards, to prevent any ambush being 
laid for it on its return." — Nat. Hist, 
viii, 39. The monuments of Egypt leave 
us little doubt, but that this animal was 




easily taken in ancient times. Wil- 
kinson thus describes the accompa- 
nying engraviug: "The chasseur is 



here in the act of throwing the spear 
at the hippopotamus, which he has al- 
ready wounded by three other blades, 



266 



JOB. 



c 



1 CHAPTER XLI. 

ANST thou draw out ai leviathan 



aPsa. 104. 26; Isa. 27. 1. — IThat is, a tchale. 



indicated by the ropes in his left band; 
and having pulled the animal towards 
the surface of the water, an attendant 
endeavors to throw a noose over its 
head, as he strikes it for a fourth time. 
Behind him is his son. holding: a fresh 
spear in readiness ; and in order that 
there should be no question about the 
ropes belonging to the blades, the 
fourth is seen to extend from his hand 
to the shaft of the spear he is throw- 
ing. 1 ' See Ancient Egyptians, hi, 68- 
71. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

b. Secondly, leviathan, whose 

HOME, LIKE THAT OF BEHEMOTH, IS BOTH 
IN THE WATER AND ON LAND. LlKE 
HIM, HE IS HIDEOUS AND FORMIDABLE IN 
HIS STRUCTURE ; BUT, UNLIKE HIM, HE IS 
A FEARLESS AND RAPACIOUS MONARCH 
OVER THE BESTIAL WORLD: A MONSTER 
BEFORE WHICH HEROES TREMBLE; AND 
INDEED THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF TER- 
ROR ITSELF. YET EVEN HE IS THE HAND- 
ICRAFT of God, 1-34. 

a. Leviathan — his intractaMeness and 
invincib ility, 1-11. 

a. If Job be what he professes to be let 
him catch, tame, and reduce to perpetual 
servitude leviathan, and in full confidence 
enter into contract with the merchants to de- 
liver unto them on demand, leviathan: 
if he feel himself impotent to essay such 
an enterprise as this, he may form some 
idea of the folly of contending with Him 
who made leviathan, and of his foolhardi- 
ness in summoning a being of such pow- 
er and wisdom to the tribunal of human 
judgment, 1-7. 

1. Canst thou draw out levia- 
than with a hook? — According to 
the almost unanimous opinion of recent 
commentators, the term leviathan is 
here used of the crocodile. See Excur- 
sus YIIL This animal, together with 
the hippopotamus, formerly abounded 
in the Nile; and it is possible that 
both, in very ancient times, were to be 
found in some of the rivers of Palestine, 
though rarely, we may assume, be- 
cause of the comparative smallness of 



with a hook ? or his tongue with a 
cord 2 which thou lettest down ? 2 Canst 

or, a whirlpool. — IWeb.vhich. tliou ■drownesl. 

these rivers. It is supposed by some 
that the lengthy description given of 
these monsters is due to their being 
entirely unknown, except by vague re- 
port, to the people among whom Job 
lived, and that this is the ground for 
their having been selected for the cli- 
mactical closing of the object lessons 
from nature, set before Job by his 
Creator. But the lesson would have 
been none the less impressive on the 
supposition that, now and then, one of 
these monsters should have been seen 
among the marshes either of the Jor- 
dan, of Merom, of the Wady Zerka, or 
of the lower portions of Esdraelon, in 
which the crocodile would have en- 
joyed a decided vantageground in 
case of any effort to take or destroy 
him. Dr. Tristram speaks of various 
reports of the existence of the croc- 
odile in the Wady Zerka or ''Blue 
River," on the plain of Sharon, a little 
to the south of Carmel, and says, "I 
have not the smallest doubt that some 
few specimens of this monster reptile, 
known to the natives under the name 
of timsah, still linger among the 
marshes of the Zerka. This is un- 
doubtedly the Crocodile River of the 
ancients, and it is difficult to conceive 
how it should have acquired the name, 
unless by the existence of the animal 
in its- marshes. . . . The crusad- 
ing historians mention the existence of 
the crocodile in their day in this very 
river. . . . When we observe the 
strong affinity between the herpetolog- 
ical and ichthyological fauna of Egypt 
and Palestine, there is scarcely more 
reason to doubt the past existence of 
the crocodile in the one, than its pre- 
sent continuance in the other." — The 
Landof Israel, 1 03, 104. " Thereis noth- 
ing," says Zockler, " to forbid the as- 
sumption that instead of the Egyptian 
crocodile, (or, at least, along ivith it,) 
the author had in view a Palestinian 
species or variety of the same animal, 
which is no longer extant, and that 
this Palestinian crocodile, just because 
it was rarer than the saurian of the 



CHAPTER XLI. 



267 



Xile. was, in fact, held to be impossi- 
ble of capture." See Pierrotti, {Gust 
and Trad, of Palestine, pp. 33-39;) also 
Dr. Robinson. (Phys. Geoj.. p. 175.) who 
remarks that -, it does not appear that 
any person, either native or foreigner, 
has ever himself actually seen a living- 
crocodile in this region." These animals 
belong to the class of saurian reptiles, 
crocodilidx, and sometimes attain to the 
enormous length of thirty or even thirty- 
five feet. ^Elian relates that during the 
reign of Psanimetichus a crocodile was 
seen of more than thirty-seven feet, 
and speaks of another under Amasis 
more than thirty-nine feet in length. 
(Larcher's Herodotus, i, 283.) Sonnini 
and Captain Xorden declare, that they 
have been sometimes met with in the 
Xile. fifty feet in length. They are of 
a bronzed green color, speckled with 
brown ; are covered with bony plates in 
six rows of nearly equal size all along 
the back, giving it the appearance of 
Mosaic; they have as many as sixty 
vertebrae. The head is oblong, about 
half as broad as it is long ; there are, 
according to Oken, fifteen teeth on each 
side of the lower jaw, and eighteen on 
each side of the upper. " Naturalists," 
says Chabas, cited by Delitzsch, "count 
five species of crocodiles living in the 
Xile, but the hieroglyphics furnish a 
greater number of names determined 
by the sign of the crocodile." There 
was certainly a great variety of species 
of this monster, and some which differ 
from all living species have, according 
to Delitzsch, also actually been found 
in Egyptian tombs. This animal is ex- 
ceedingly fierce, wily, and treacher- 
ous, and its destructive voracity may 
be symbolized by the immense size of 
its mouth. Canst thou draw — Tlb'.OH 

Umshoh. This, the first word in this 
abrupt and startling introduction of 
leviathan, appears without the mark 
of interrogation, unless, with Hitzig. 
we rind it in the CjK, nose, with which 

the preceding description closes, and 
which also signifies •'even. - ' "yea 
even." and in ironical affirmation is 
used with the force of a question, as 
in the sneering remark of the serpent 



to Eve, Gen. iii. 1, which commences 
with an 7)N ••really?" "is it really 

so?" Compare 1 Sam. xiv, 30: Hub. 
ii, 5. In the opinion of some there is 
peculiar reason for the use of this 
word timshok, from the fact that the 
Egyptian hieroglyph rnsuh for croco- 
dile. (Coptic, temsah ; Arabic, Umsah,) 
had not been Hebraized, and they 
(Ewald, Delitzsch, and Dillmann) rind 
in the likeness of the Hebrew verb and 
the Egyptian noun, a possible play 
upon words ; but all such constrained 
allusion is rather a play of critical fan- 
cy, and is unworthy of the occasion. 
The employment of the Hebrew verb 
may. possibly, serve as a linger pointer 
to the animal intended by livyathan. 
With a hook — The hhakhih was a 
draw net. (Delitzsch, Hitzig,) or, accord- 
ing to Ewald and Fiirst, an ordinary 
fishhook. Literally : Thou drawest out 
leviathan with a hoop net! Job's moral 
prowess must have received a severe 
shock as the intensified irony of this 
verse — which, with great significance, 
waited not for an interrogation particle 
— burned down into his soul. Or his 
tongue — It is worthy of special notice, 
that the wisest naturalists of antiquity, 
Herodotus, (ii, 68.) Aristotle, Plutarch, 
(De Iside., 75,) Pliny, (//. A!, viii, 37.) 
etc., either denied that the crocodile, 
had a tongue, or. in the case of Pliny, 
any use for it; while the text unpre- 
tendingly assumes its existence, indi- 
cating a minuteness of knowledge 
upon natural subjects, which should 
make modern naturalists wary of ques- 
tioning the poet's statements, even in 
a single point. The peculiar form 
of the question of the text seems to 
imply special knowledge of the struc- 
ture of the tongue of the crocodile, 
which is fleshy and flat, and attached 
nearly the whole of its length to 
the jaw. On this account the ani- 
mal is not able to protrude it forth. 
Sir Samuel Baker says, '-The tongue of 
the crocodile is so unlike that of any 
other animal, that it can hardly bo 
called by the same name ; no portion 
throughout the entire length is de- 
tached from the flesh of the lower 
jaw — it is more like a thickened mem- 



268 



JOB. 



thou b put a hook into his nose? or bore 
his jaw through with a thorn \ 3 Will 
he make many supplications unto thee ? 



Isaiah 



brane from the gullet, to about half 
way along the length of the jaw." — Nile 
Tributaries, 241. With a cord which 
thou lettest down — And with a cord 
dost thou press downhis tongue? or "sink- 
est thou his tongue into the line ? " The 
latter reading, of Schultens, Hirtzel, De- 
litzsch, is grammatically admissible, but 
as Dillmann w T ell says, ,; presents an im- 
practicable idea." The question rather 
looks to the compressing of the tongue 
by some rope of the net alluded to in 
the preceding clause. The accompany- 
ing engraving exhibits a portion of an 
ancient Egyptian net now in the Berlin 




ANCIENT EGYPTIAN NET. 

Museum. It was of a long form, says 
Wilkinson, like the common dragnet, 
with wooden floats on the upper, and 
leads on the lower, side ; but, though it 
was sometimes let down from a boat, 
those w T ho pulled it generally stood on 
the shore, and landed the fish on a 
shelving bank. 

2. A hook — Hebrew, agmon, rush, 
cord, or reed. (Xote, xl, 21.) Wilkinson 
(iii, (3) says of the ancient Egyptians, 
they passed the stalk of & rush through 
the gills, and thus attached the fish 
together, in order the more conveniently 
to cany them home. Nose — The sec- 
ond word rendered nose is lehi, jaw 
oonc or jaw. Thorn — Bhoo.hh, either a 
look or a thorn. These four questions 
imply that the huge monster here de- 



will he speak soft words unto thee ? 
4 Will he make a covenant with thee ? 
wilt thou take him for a servant, for 



scribed was taken with great difficulty 
at the time the scenes of this book took 
place. These questions do not contem- 
plate the improvements made in mod- 
ern times in all kinds of murderous 
instruments, but simply the relation 
man sustained in ancient times to this 
ferocious monster, and "are shaped 
according to the measure of power man 
had then obtained over nature." — De- 
litzsch. Also, it is the beast as he then 
existed, in his primitive vigour and in his 
untamed wildness, that w r e have to con- 
sider, with his wondrous coat of armour 
and his powerful weapons of attack, 
which unquestionably made him the 
terror of beasts and men. In later times 
(about B. C. 450) Herodotus (ii, 70) 
describes at large the mode of taking 
the crocodile in his day. 

3. Many supplications unto thee ? 
— That thou mayest set him, a captive, 
at liberty. The preceding verses evi- 
dently refer to the taking of the croco- 
dile alive. Suspended on a rush cord, 
he is now represented as begging for 
his life. The ancients fancied that the 
dolphin, the supposed mortal enemy of 
the crocodile, would make supplications 
for its life. Eichhorn's rendering. -'Will 
he (sincerely) make moan unto thee," 
were it correct, might justify his note 
based on a singular fancy of the ancients, 
that the crocodile moaned simply that 
he might entice the wanderer to sure 
destruction. Thence rises the idea, 
which, in the fo r m of " crocodile's 
tears," has become proverbial. 

4. Will he make a covenant? — 
The same phrase, ITHB n^3, is used in 

the description in Gen. xv, 18, of the 
covenant between the Lord and Abra- 
ham. The phrase means literally, "cut 
a covenant," and reappears in the Greek 
and the Latin, and apparently springs 
from a like primeval custom common to 
them all. A servant for ever — Will 
he, as a consideration lor sparing his life, 
enter into a covenant of perpetual ser- 
vice ? On the hypothesis that this book 
was written subsequently to the Mosaic 



CHAPTER XLI. 



269 



? 5 Wilt thou play with him as ! make a banquet of him? shall they part 



with a bird ? or wilt thou bind him for 
thy maidens ? 6 Shall the companions 

economy, there may be in the phrase 
"servant for ever," an allusion to the 
mode by which Israelitish servants cove- 
nanted to serve for ever. Exod. xxi, 6. 

5. As with a bird — Catullus (ii, 1) 
speaks of " the sparrow, the delight of 
my girl." G-enerically, the crocodile- 
was probably the most untamable of 
animals, and yet even they have now 
and then been tamed to do the will of 
man. A Roman statue now in the 
British Museum represents an Egyptian 
tumbler performing on the back of a 
crocodile, as exhibited in the theatre at 
Rome. See note on iii, 8 ; and Sharpe's 
Bible Texts, page 96. 

6. The companions — D"H3,n. There 

can be but little question that the word 
refers to partners in trade. Compare 
Luke v, 7-10. Fishermen in ancient 
Egypt were banded together in fraterni- 
ties or guilds. Riippell (Reisen, i, 254) 
speaks of the existence of such fra- 
ternities in Abyssinia, even at the pres- 
ent day. Make a banquet of him ? 
— (Septuagint, Targura, Schultens;) but 
better, traffic in him, (Ewald, Delitzsch, 
Zockler,) a meaning for karah which 
corresponds with the Arabic kara, " to 
buy," also with the Sanscrit kri, (kara;) 
and at the same time helps to confirm 
the rendering of the same word in vi, 
27, on .which see note. The mention 
of •" merchants " in the next clause sub- 
stantiates such an interpretation, not- 
withstanding it is against the view of 
Gesenius and Conant, who, with Winer, 
(Lex., s. v.,) hold to the radical mean- 
ing of the word "to dig," and read: 
" Will partners dig a pit for him?" But 
this substantially repeats what had been 
said before about catching the crocodile 
with a hook; and while it does violence 
to the parallelism, it gives an incongru- 
ous meaning. Carey follows Schultens 
in the speculation "that originally pass- 
ing the contract of a purchase was signi- 
fied or ratified by some such act as dig- 
ging, as being perhaps significant that 
payment of a purchase was originally 
made in manual labor or tillage." Mer- 
chants — D^yJ3i literally, Canaanites; 



him among the merchants '? 7 Canst thou 
fill his skin with barbed irons ? or his 

unquestionably Phoenicians, who were 
pre-eminently the merchants of the an- 
cient world. Isaiah, (xxiii, 8,) speaking 
of the merchants of Tyre, calls them, in 
the Hebrew, " Canaanites." In Hosea 
xii, 7, Canaan stands as the synonyme 
of merchant. Homer also speaks of the 
arrival of a Phoenician merchant, ($ol- 
vU; } ) "skilled in wiles, a greedy knave, 
working much ill to men." — Odys., xiv, 
288, 289. These merchants were noto- 
rious in the ancient world as slave deal- 
ers and kidnappers. The Phoenicians 
called their primogenitor yj3, (Xvd,) 

chna, which, according to Sanchoniatho, 
was changed into Phoenix, theuce " Phoe- 
nicians.'' See Cory's Anc. Frag., p. 16. 
A Phoenician coin is still extant bearing 
the inscription, " Laodicea, Mother in Ca- 
naan." The Septuagint here, as well as 
frequently elsewhere, renders the word 
Canaanite, Phoenicians, Qoivinuv eOvrj. 
The reference in the text is to caravans 
like that of the Midianites, which in pa- 
triarchal times visited Egypt, bringing 
back with them various commodities 
taken in barter. " It is an evidence of 
the antiquity of this book, unless there 
is interposed the objection, which grows 
weaker the more it is studied, that the 
writer cunningly adapts every thing to 
the patriarchal times, without ever for- 
getting himself, or failing in any part 
of his picture." — Tayler Lewis. 

7. Barbed irons — Sukkoth; a gen- 
eral term for pointed weapons. Pish 
spears — Tailtsal dagim. At the root of 
tsiltsal lies the idea of "tinkling," or 
"clanging," and "buzzing," and is spo- 
ken of insects, cymbals, fishing instru- 
ments, etc. The spear was evidently 
hurled from the hand like a harpoon. 
The weapon was used in taking the 
life of the hippopotamus. See note, 
xl, 24; also, Gresenius, Thesaurus, 1167. 

b. If Job by no means dare to stand 
before the creature, how dare he appear 
before the Creator, prating of his rights, 
and urging preposterous claims upon a 
Being wlw has received, nothing from man, 
and is, therefore, untrammelled by obliga- 
tions; but who is, on the contrary, the sole 



270 



JOB. 



head with fish spears? 8 Lay thine 
hand upon him, reniemher the battle, do 
no more. 9 Behold, the hope of him is 
in vain : shall not one be cast down even 
at the sight of him ? 10 None is so 
fierce that dare stir him up ; c who then 
is able to stand before me ? 1 1 d Who 
hatli prevented me, that I should repay 



c Chap. 40. 9 ; Jer. 12. 5 ; 1 Cor. 10. 22. 
11. 35. 



-d Rom. 



proprietor of all things, 8-11. " In these 
two questions, Who ami? and Who art 
thou? is expressed the ruling thought 
of the Almighty's discourses." — Heng- 
stenberg. 

8. Do no more — The Hebrew may 
be rendered either as an imperative or 
as a second person singular. He who 
enters alone upon an encounter with 
this monster will not care to try it again. 

9. Of him — The rash assailant. 

10. Fierce — Zockler renders "fool- 
hardy," which is not to be preferred to 
the text, since the same word akza.r, 
fierce, is in xxx, 21 applied by Job to 
God. Dare stir him up — The same 
Hebrew word l^y, " stir up," is used in 
iii, 8, of ' : raising up " leviathan, where it 
is implied that the only conceivable mode 
of dealing with him was by incanta- 
tions — possibly spells of Satan, certain- 
ly by power supposed to be derived from 
the invisible world. See note on iii, 8. 
The coincidence between the two pas- 
sages should be noted, and is among 
many similar ones scattered through 
the Jehovistie section, which point to its 
integral oneness with the rest of the 
book. See Excursus VIII, page 281. In 
an inscription on a tablet at Karnak, 
Amun Ra thus addresses Thothmes III.: 
" I have made them behold thy majesty 
like unto a crocodile : he is the terrible 
master of the waters: no one ventures 
to approach him." 

1 1. Prevented me — First given to 
me. Tyndale's rendering will express 
the idea : " Or who hathe given me anye 
thinge afore hand, that I am bounde to 
reward him agayne." Comp. xxxiv, 13 ; 
Isa, xl, 13-15; and Rom. xi, 35-36. 
The lengthened description of leviathan 
is interrupted, that Job may be again 
reminded of its moral import — that God 
is governor; that his dominion is world 
wide, because all belongs to him ; that 



him? e whatsoever is under the whole 
heaven is mine. 12 1 will not conceal 
his parts, nor his power, nor his comely 
proportion. 13 Who can discover the 
face of his garment ? or who can come 
to Mm 3 with his double bridle ? 14 Who 
can open the doors of his face? his 
teeth are terrible round about. 15 His 



e Exod. 19. 5 ; Deut. 10. 14 ; Psa. 24. 1 ; 50. 12 : 
1 Cor. 10. 26, 28. 3 Or, within. 



he is under no obligations to his crea- 
tures on account of favours received ; 
therefore, if he give, it must be exclu- 
sively of grace. " This digression in 
Jehovah's speech does not disturb the 
harmony of the passage. It is an agree- 
able change, after the long description 
of the sea monster." — Umhreit. 

(3 — The divine Speaker resumes the de- 
scription of leviathan, in order that he 
may dwell more at large upon the artistic 
skill and the esthetic wisdom displayed in 
the making of a reptile whose eyes, mouth, 
nostrils and breath are a source of terror : 
and show that even so insignificant a thing 
as his garment has been exquisitely elabo- 
rated, so as to serve the hvofold object of 
covering and martial defence, 12-22. 

12. Conceal his parts — Heb., bad- 
dim; pass in silence his members. Same 
as in xviii, 13. See note. The divine Be- 
ing has thus far spoken of the invinci- 
bility of leviathan; he will now speak 
of his bodily structure and mode of life. 
Nor his power — Literally, and the 
word of powers, "ill, word, Vaihinger 

understands to mean " fame ;" Delitzsch, 
"proportion." 

13. Who can discover — Rather, 
uncover, in the sense of lift up, as one 
would a veil, his outside garmen : 
his closely wrought and scaly coat of 
mail. The text beautifully calls it his 
"garment" — £*Q^ — a description of 

which is given at large, 15-lt. The 
double bridle — Literally, the double of 
his bridle, is here used figuratively for 
the jaws, each of which contained a 
double row of teeth, numbering, in the 
upper jaw, as many as thirty-six, and in 
the lower, thirty; and as they were un- 
covered by the lip, presenting a fright- 
ful appearance. Into his double jaics, 
who enters? 

14. The doors of his face — His 



CHAPTER XLI. 



271 



4 scales are his pride, shut up together 
as with a close seal. 16 One is so near 
to another, that no air can come between 
them. 17 They are joined one to an- 
other, they stick together, that they can- 
not be sundered. 18 By his neesings a 



4 Heb. strong 



mighty jaws, which extend back of his 
eyes and ears. Martial (iii, 90) jests 
over a large mouth, and compares it to 
that of the crocodile of the Nile. His 
teeth . . . terrible — Literally, Round 
about his teeth is terror : within his teeth 
terror takes up its abode. The lofty 
conception of the speaker which clothed 
the war horse with thunder, (xxxix, 19,) 
now finds within the ugly jaws of levia- 
than the dwelling place of terror. 

15. Scales — Literally, strong shields, 
(Rosenmuller, Fiirst;) or, according to 
others, (Deliizsch, Hitzig,) furrows of 
the shields. Tristram observes that the 
whole head, back, and tail are covered 
with quadrangular horny plates or 
scales, which not only protect the body, 
so that a rifle ball glances from them as 
from a rock, but also serve as ballast, 
enabling the creature to sink rapidly 
on being disturbed, by merely expelling 
the air from its lungs. Shut up to- 
gether ... a clo3e seal — Each shield 
fits as closely as the seal to the clay ; 
nay, more closely, as the next verse 
shows, for no air can penetrate nature's 
work ; it is airtight. (See note on chap, 
xxxviii, 14.) 

1 6. No air — Rouahh, used in an ac- 
tive sense for air in motion, and poet- 
ically rendered by Scott, " no breath of 
wind." 

17. Joined one to another — The 
beauty of the original is lost. Literally, 
This holds fast to that, (Hitzig,) or 
" each to its fellow (literally, brother) is 
firmly attached." They stick togeth- 
er — The same word in xxxviii, 30, was 
used of the formation of ice. 

18. By his neesings a light doth 
shine — Rather, His sneezings flash forth 
light. " This delicate observation of 
nature is here compressed into three 
words ; in this concentration of whole 
grand thoughts and pictures we recog- 
nise the older poet." — Deliizsch. This 
animal, as travellers have remarked from 



light doth shine, and his eyes are like 
the eyelids of the morning. 19 Out of 
his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks 
of fire leap out. 20 Out of his nostrils 
goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or 
caldron. 21 His breath kindleth coals, 



pieces of shields. 



the days of Herodotus to the present, 
delights to he on the sandbank, turning 
his open jaws to the sun — an act which 
naturally gives rise to sneezing. The 
sun's light, shining through the abun- 
dant spray thrown from the nostrils, pro- 
duces a striking luminous appearance. 
A like delicate observation of the hippo- 
potamus is made by Dr. Schweinfurth, 
an African traveller: "In the sunlight 
the tine spray emitted from their nostrils 
gleamed like a ray of light." — Heart of 
Africa, ih 315. The Jews, according to 
Buxtorf, (col. 1599,) connect with this 
text a notion that sneezing saves life by 
the light which it gives. In keeping with 
this conceit, the Jews, says Chappelow, 
when any one sneezes, say: "A happy 
life to thee." The eyelids of the 
morning— (See iii, 9.) The Egyptian 
made the flashing, cat-like eyes of this 
animal the symbol of the morning. A 
passage from Horus-Apollos, who wrote 
on hieroglyphs about 500 A. D., furnishes 
a remarkable illustration: "To describe 
the dawn, the Egyptians depict two 
eyes of a crocodile, inasmuch as the 
eyes make their appearance out of the 
deep before its entire body." 

1 9. Burning lamps — Flames better 
expresses the root idea of the Hebrew 
lappidh, and it is the rendering of G-e- 
senius. A forcible figure for the burn- 
ing, -fiery breath. 

20. A. . .caldron — Thus Hitzig, De- 
litzsch, etc. The same word, agmon, ap- 
pears in the second verse, and is here 
correspondingly read by some, kindled 
reeds. See note on xl, 21. 

21. His breath kindleth coals — A 
highly poetical description of the beast 
when engaged in the pursuit of his prey, 
or when inflamed with rage. In equally 
bold and high-wrought figure, Ovid de- 
scribes a ferocious wild boar: Fulmen 
ab ore venit, frondesgue adflatibus ardent : 
" Lightning comes from his mouth, and 
the boughs burn with his breath." 



272 



JOB. 



and a flame goeth out of his mouth. 

22 In hisneck remaineth strength, and 
5 sorrow is turned into joy before him. 

23 6 The flakes of his flesh are joined 
together : they are firm in themselves ; 
they cannot be moved. 24 His heart is 



5 Heb. sorrow rejoiceth. 



22. Remaineth — Literally, pass the 
night, same as in xix, 4. A literal ren- 
dering brings out the personification : — 

In his neck lodgeth strength ; 
Before him runneth terror. 

His neck at night is the resting place 
of strength ; terror is bis avant-courier 
by day ; " terror bounds before liim." 
— Renan. Is turned into joy be- 
fore him — The Septuagint gives better 
sense, as it more correctly interprets the 
original — runs before him. The word 
}T1. clouts, means "to jump," "to leap," 
and in the Targum is used for " rejoic- 
ing," "leaping for joy:" a sense our 
translators have entered in the margin. 
The Arabic name for the Sphinx is " fa- 
ther of terror." 

y. This section resumes the subject left 
at verse 17, {from which verses 18-22 
ere a digression, setting forth the ter- 
ribleness of leviathan,) and shows that 
even the fleshy parts of this monster 
have been fitted close to it like a metal 
casting, and his heart made firm as a 
stone, and that even his path through the 
mire resembles the impress of a threshing 
machine ; so that he fears neither the as- 
saults of man nor those of the entire brute 
creation. Monster of monsters ! there is 
not on earth a dominion like his, who is 
made without fear, and who looketh down 
upon every high thing, 23-34. 

23. Firm in themselves — Literal- 
ly, molten upon them. On him is no 
flabby, pendulous flesh as on other ani- 
mals ; all is welded together as if made 
of metal. 

24. Hard. . .millstone — Hard as the 
nether millstone. This was, in general, 
compact and heavy, often made of 
sandstone, and quite thick, while the 
upper one, having to be driven round 
by the hand, was made lighter, and 
of more porous texture. The hard- 
ness spoken of may be the cold, slug- 
gish action of the heart, that character- 
izes all the saurians, which, on this 



as firm as a stone : yea, as hard as a 
piece of the nether millstone. 25 When 
he raiseth up himself, the mighty are 
afraid : by reason of breakings they pu- 
rify themselves. 26 The sword of him 
that layeth at him cannot hold : the 



6 Heb. The fallings. 



account, are distinguished as cold- 
blooded ; or the disposition of the rep- 
tile, of which iElian says, he is the most 
pitiless of animals. 

25. By reason of breakings — 
The word D'HSt^, from shabar, (Arabic 

shahara,) "to break," blends the two- 
fold effect of fear — the breaking down 
of the nervous force, the morale of the 
man, and the confounding, the bewil- 
dering, of the judgment. Among Ori- 
entals terror is expressed by verbs of 
breaking, as Bochartus has observed. 
They purify themselves — }KBnrv — 

The meaning of the hithpael form of the 
verb hhatah is not essentially different 
from the kal form, commented upon in 
chap. v. 24, (which see,) and may be 
read, they miss their way ; or, according 
to Delitzsch and Zockler, miss their 
aim, so confused are these " heroes " 
by reason of overpowering fear. The 
word is spoken, says Gesenius, of those 
who wander from the way, driven into 
precipitate flight by excessive terror. 
(TJies., 465.) Like our own translators, 
who mystified the passage by render- 
ing the word hhatah "purify," Heng- 
stenberg adopts this secondary mean- 
ing of "absolving," and thinks that in 
their great fear they betake themselves 
to God as their only hope, "in other 
words, repeat a pater nosier." "Abso- 
lution (he says) is the means of obtain- 
ing help from God." His views may 
serve as a gloss upon our Authorized 
Version, but will not help toward the 
interpretation of the passage. 

26. The sword of him that layeth 
at him, etc. — If one (literally, he who) 
readies him with the sword. Cannot 
hold — Literally, stand, stand fast, keep 
hold. The spear — Hhanith, De- 
litzsch erroneously supposes to be the 
long lance, in contradistinction to the 
kidhon. See on verse 29. The dart 
— Massalu from nasali, " to move on," 



CHAPTER XLI. 



27< 



spear, the dart, nor the 7 habergeon. 
27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and 
brass as rotten wood. 28 The arrow 
cannot make him flee : sling stones are 
turned with him into stubble. 29 Darts 
are counted as stubble : he laugheth at 

7 Or, breastplate. 



" to hasten," probably signified some 
missile. The Septuagint and Targum 
regard this and the preceding word as 
one, and render it " spear." The ha- 
bergeon — French, haubergeon. The 
rendering of our Authorized Version 
answers to the hauberk, the old Nor- 
man armour for the neck, head, and 
breast, formed of rings. (Dr. Clarke.) 
The shiryah, of which the Hebrew 
speaks, was a coat of mail. (Fiirst.) 
Others suppose some kind of missile 
to be meant. "The poet means to say, 
the defensive weapons, also, are use- 
less, and that the breastplate of the 
warrior affords no protection against 
the monster." — Umbreit. 

27. He esteemeth iron as straw — 
An expression some suppose to refer to 
the enormous power of the crocodile's 
snap. Kitto cites a case which occurred 
in Ceylon, in which an enraged alligator 
bit the barrel of a gun completely in two. 
On the contrary, the text describes the 
crocodile's contemptuous disregard of 
the missiles employed by the ancients 
in their assaults upon him. 

28. The arrow — Literally, the son 
of a bow. Compare " sons of his quiver," 
Lam. iii, 13. See note on chap. v. 7. 



29. Darts- 




Vol. V 



Thothahh. Either clubs, 
battle axe, or bludgeon. 
(Fiirst.) The like mean- 
ing of the same word 
in the Arabic favours 
the first of these defini- 
tions. The boomerang, 
or club — stick, (now 
called lissdn, tongue,) 
was much in use among 
the ancient Egyptian 
soldiers, and, in close 
combat, was really a 
formidable weapon, as 
the experience of mod- 
ern times sufficiently 
testifies. It was about 
two and a half feet long, 
lid made of hard acacia 
19 



the shaking of a spear. 30 8 Sharp 
stones are under him: he spreadeth 
sharp pointed things upon the mire. 
31 He maketh the deep to boil like 
a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot 
of ointment. 32 He maketh a path to 



8 Heb. Sharp pieces of potsherd. 



wood. See Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, 
(P. A., i, p. 365.) The spear— The Ici- 
alhon (javelin) or spear was borne upon 
the shoulder, as in the case of G-oliath, 
(1 Sam. xvii, 6, 7,) and was in common 
use among the Babylonians and Per- 
sians. Jer. vi, 23; 1, 42. 

30. Sharp stones — Literally, pieces 
of potsherd. For description of pot- 
sherd, see ii, 8. ^Elian, (H. A., x, 24,) 
also compares the sharp-edged scales, 
on the under side of the crocodile, to 
pointed potsherds, oarpanoLc naprcpoic. 
Sharp pointed things — Hharouts, 
signifies ' a threshing sledge ; " also 
"gold; " a sense in which Carey takes 
it, who remarks " that the crocodile 
is said to spread gold upon the mud 
when his tail, the upper part of which 
is of a saffron colour, trails along, or 
lies upon, a bed of mud. ... A kind 
of seeming incongruity is doubtless in- 
tended in the notion of the crocodile 
spreading gold upon the mud. It is 
what man would not do. . . . The croco- 
dile, on the contrary, spreads the gold- 
en-tinted portions of his belly and tail on 
the mud." The word -is almost unan- 
imously accepted to signify an instru- 
ment for threshing, and is here used 
tropically. The impression that the tail 
of the animal (which is half his length) 
makes on the mire, is as if a threshing 
sledge had lain there. "This sledge 
consisted simply of two planks fastened 
together side by side, and bent upward 
in front; precisely as is the common 
stone-sledge of New England, though 
less heavy. Many holes are bored in 
the bottom beneath, and into these are 
fixed sharp fragments of hard stone." 
— Dr. Robinson, ii, p. 307. " This com- 
parison is somewhat ironical, as it is not 
customary to spread out threshing in- 
struments 'upon the mire,' but upon 
the fruits of the ground." — Umbreit. 

31. The sea— The Arabs still call 
the Xile bahr, a sea. Pot of oint- 
ment — This figure rests, as some sup- 

O. T. 



274, 



JOB. 



shine after him ; orie would think the 
deep to be hoary. 33 Upon earth there 
is not his like, 9 who is made without 

9 Or, who behave them- 



pose, upon the strong, musk-like odour 
emitted by the crocodile. " There is 
a follicle, of the bigness of a hazel nut, 
under the shoulders of the old croc- 
odiles; this contains a thick matter 
which smells like musk. The Egyptians 
are very anxious to get this when they 
kill a crocodile, it being a perfume 
much esteemed by the grandees." — 
Hasselquist, Travels, page 215. The 
preparation of perfumes, in ancient 
times, evidently involved the process 
of boiling. Wilkinson's statement, that 
ointment (found in an sSabaster vase) 
two or three thousand years old still 
retained its odour, seems to indicate, a 
lost art. (Ancient Egyptians, i, p. 34.) A 
scene which Dr. Livingstone describes 
gives a curious insight into the habits 
of the crocodile, and forcibly illustrates 
this and the following verse : " The 
corpse of a boy floated past the ship ; 
a monstrous crocodile rushed at it with 
the speed of a greyhound, caught it, 
and shook it as a terrier dog does a rat. 
Others dashed at the prey, each with 
his powerful tail causing the water to 
churn and froth as he ferociously tore 
off a piece. In a few seconds it was 
all gone." — Zambesi, p. 417. 

32. Hoary — This figure (comparing 
the foaming water to hair white with 
age) is one of great dignity, and is 
common in the classics. For instance, 
Homer (Iliad, i, 350) speaks of "the 
hoary sea," and Moschus of " the hoary 
deep." — Id., v, 5. 

33. Upon earth there is not his 
like — Thus the Septuagint, Delitzsch, 
and Umbreit. The word ipfcJJft, Ms 

; T 

like, may also signify "his ruler," 
(Hitzig, Ewald, etc.,) and the sentence 
be read literally, There is not on the 
dust his ruler: among beasts and 
among men he has no king. The rea- 
son is obliquely given for the honour 
accorded the two monsters, of crown- 
ing the tableau held up from nature ; 
the one is a firstling of God's works; 
the other is one of nature's monarchs, 
which acknowledges uo superior. 



fear. 34 He beholdeth til high things : 
he is a king over all the children of 
pride. 

selves without fear. 



34. He beholdeth all high things 

— Without fear he looks in the face of 
man, the monarch, here standing in 
contradistinction to the king of beasts, 
in the second clause. Comp. xl, 11, 12. 
Children of pride — Rendered "the 
lion's whelps," in xxviii, 8. It is here 
used of the most formidable of beasts, 
with their characteristically majestic 
and haughty step. Aben Ezra, however, 
remarks that vnE'""02l "is a comprehen- 
sive expression, including whatsoever 
hath its birth in the waters." That pride 
should be the last word of this won- 
derful description is worthy of note ; 
and may help somewhat to solve the 
mystery of the divine address. The fig- 
ure with which it closes is a startling 
one — that of the most fearful of all rep- 
tiles — their king, and, as the ancients 
thought, the embodiment of evil — star- 
ing not only at all that is high, but at 
poor, humbled Job. His pride — if such 
were his infirmity — is now all broken, 
and the work of discipline is complete. 

EXCURSUS No. VIII. 
Behemoth and Leviathan. 

The word behemoth, in its Hebrew 
aspect, is generally assumed to be the 
plural form of behemah, "beast," from 
baham, "to be mute," (see note on xii, 
7,) and by some it is supposed to be 
used collectively for beasts in general, 
as in the Septuagint, (Ovpia,) and in 
the Ohaldee, (xn^;) the Syriac and 

Vulgate, like ourselves, meanwhile re- 
taining the Hebrew word. On the as- 
sumption of such a derivation of the 
word, it may be regarded as "a plural 
of excellency," a not uncommon form 
in the Hebrew for the superlative 
qualities of an object. The scholarship 
of the day, however, inclines to the 
view that this word behemoth, though 
it bears a Hebrew form, is an impor- 
tation into that language from Egypt, 
(thus Dillmann and Hitzig;) its re- 
semblance to the Coptic pehemaut, 
water ox, (p, the; ehe, ox; man, water,) 



CHAPTER XLI. 



275 



having been noted by the best biblical 
scholars from the times of Jablonski to 
the present: for instance, Gesenins, 
"Winer, Fiirst, Delitzsch, etc. In the 
hieroglyphs, the Nile-horse or ox (hip- 
popotamus) was called apet or rert, the 
meaning of which was, according to 
Brugsch, l * that which rolls or turns it- 
self in the mud or water; that is. a beast 
that rolls in the mud." — Hieroglyph. 
Demot. Worterbuch, p. 867. The hiero- 
glyphic representation of the hippopot- 
amus as given by Canon Cook, and 
on page 262 of this work, is taken from 
the description of a fishing party in the 
times of the seventeenth or eighteenth 
dynasty, a period earlier than that of 
Moses, and is read by Birch, who fol- 
lows Champollion, bechama, the resem- 
blance of which to the word before us. 
behemoth, is unmistakable. It is proper 
to remark, however, that Brugsch trans- 
cribes it cheb. 

The etymology, then, of the word behe- 
moth, as seen through the more recent 
philological discoveries, points to the 
hippopotamus, and makes quite un- 
necessary any enlarged reference to the 
various speculations indulged in by 
various interpreters of behemoth. Dru- 
sius, Grotius, Schultens, J. D. Michae- 
lis, Scott, Henry, P. H. Gosse, (Fair- 
bairn's Bib. Die.,) suppose that the ele- 
phant is meant by behemoth ; others, 
again, (as Professors Lee, Rosenmuller, 
W. F. Ainsworth, in Journal of Sacred 
Literature, 1859, p. 44,) regard the word 
as collective, and standing for beasts 
in general, while Dr. Good and a few 
others think that behemoth answers to 
some extinct pachyderm of the mam- 
moth or mastodon species. On the 
supposition that no living species of the 
hippopotamus, as respects bulk, shape, 
or disposition, fills all the demands of 
this detailed description given in Job, it 
is not improbable that all the conditions 
may have been fulfilled by some one of 
the various species of the same animal 
living at the same time as Job. Six 
species of the hippopotamus have been 
found in the fossil state, and even in En- 
gland one species has been discovered as 
much larger than his living congener as 
its companion, the mammoth, was larger 
than the living elephant. See Cham- 



bers's Cyclopaedia, s. v. Rabbinical 
writers in the Talmud depicted this 
animal — supposed by them also to be 
alluded to in Psalm 1, 10 — as a mon- 
ster, every day devouring "the grass 
of a thousand hills," destined himself 
in turn to furnish a feast for God's 
people when the Messiah shall come. 
According to the legend, behemoth 
was created male and female ; but the 
latter was destroyed, lest the earth 
should be unable to sustain their prog- 
eny, while the male is doomed to live 
on until all the faithful Israelites shall 
have been raised from the dead, at which 
time he himself shall be slaughtered. 
(See Kitto, Bib. lllus., in loc. Allen, 
Modern Judaism, p. 271. Samuel Wes- 
ley, Dissertationes, pp. 295-297.) 

The word leviathan (Hebrew, livya- 
thav) occurs five times in the Scriptures : 
Job in, 8; xli, 1; Psa.lxxiv, 14; civ, 26; 
Isa. xxvii, 1 ; and, with the exception of 
Job hi, 8, is uniformly rendered leviathan. 
The term livyathan is from lavah, to 
"writhe," "wind," "twist; " a likemean- 
ing to which the cognate word in the Ar- 
abic and Syria c also bears. See on xli, 1. 
The term, then, may be used in a by no 
means restricted sense, but one wide 
enough to embrace some unknown 
monster of the deep. Psa. civ, 26. In 
Isaiah xxvii. verse 1, the word appears 
twice, first as the synonyme of "the 
piercing serpent," nahhash bariahh, the 
"fleeing" or "fleet serpent," from 
barahh " to flee," (same as in Job xxvi, 
13 ; see note,) and secondly, as equiva- 
lent to "the crooked serpent," nahhash 
'hakallathon, from liakal, "to twist," 
"wind," or "coil," in allusion to the 
sinuosities into which serpents form 
themselves in order that rapid motion 
may be effected. Such an association 
of the term leviathan evidently indi- 
cates a wide use of the word for any 
great monster, whether of the ocean, 
(Psa. civ, 26,) the air, (Job xxvi, 13,) 
or the land. There can be but little 
doubt that here, and in Job iii, 8, (on 
which see extended note,) as well as 
in Psa. Ixxiv, 14, leviathan answers 
to the ancient crocodile. The number 
of names given to the crocodile in very 
ancient times points to a great variety 
of species, and " crocodiles which differ 



276 



JOB. 



from all living species have also actu- 
ally been found in Egyptian tombs." — 
Schmarda, cited by Delitzsch, ii, p. 366. 
Among the many considerations that 
might be urged, that in neither case has 
the modern critic erred in his designa- 
tion of behemoth and leviathan, is the 
interesting fact that the hippopotamus 
and crocodile appear together as typi- 
cal monsters in the most ancient times ; 
perhaps, because they were found to- 
gether in the Nile, and also because of 
the profound impression which both 
of these monstrosities made upon that 
intelligent but most superstitious peo- 
ple, the Egyptians. Bochartus fur- 
nishes a formidable array of author- 
ities and gives copious citations in il- 
lustration of this strange association of 
the two by the ancients. Among those 
who thus speak of behemoth and levi- 
athan are Herodotus, Diodorus Sicu- 
lus, Pliny, Solinus, Philo, Pausanias, 
Marcellinus, etc. Clemens, according to 
Wilkinson, (v, p. 180,) substitutes the 
crocodile for the hippopotamus in the 
sentence which he cites from a temple 
at Dispolis. Bunsen {Egypt's Place, 
etc., i, 516) gives a hiero- 
glyph in which the two are 
conjoined. According to 
Jewish traditions, a fierce 
battle is yet to be waged be- 
tween behemoth and leviathan, in which 
neither shall be victorious; but when 
both shall fall exhausted, they shall be 
stabbed and slain by Messiah. (Allen, 
Modern Judaism, 2 TO.) 

An exceedingly difficult question, 
forced upon the commentator, is that of 
determining the significance of these 
two animals, of which the sacred 
writer gives so long and detailed a 
description. The cursory notes already 
given have glanced at some of the 
greatly diversified views held by 
ancient and modern writers. That 
these beasts are introduced into the 
address of Jehovah for the purpose of 
inculcating upon Job some deep ethi- 
cal lesson is admitted by all those who 
do not, like Ewald, Simson, Fiirst, and 
Dillmann, go to the extreme of exclud- 
ing the behemoth-leviathan section from 
the word of God. Delitzsch thinks 
that ''these two descriptions are de- 




signed to teach Job how little capable 
of passing sentence upon the evil doer 
he is who cannot even draw a cord 
through the nose of the behemoth, and 
who, if he once attempted to attack 
the leviathau, would have reason to re- 
member it so long as he lived, and 
would henceforth let him alone. It is, 
perhaps, an emblem that is not with- 
out connexion with the book of Job, 
that these, behemoth and livyathan, (tan- 
nin,) in the language of the prophets 
and the psalms are the symbols of a 
worldly power at enmity with the God 
of redemption and his people." .... 
" To show Job how little capable he is of 
governing the world, and how little he 
would be in a position to execute judg- 
ment on the evil doer, two creatures 
are described to him — two unslain 
monsters of gigantic structure and in- 
vincible strength, which defy all hu- 
man attack." Vol. ii, p. 384. Zockler, 
(in Lange,) whom Zschokke follows, re- 
gards them as " awe-inspiring exam- 
ples for us ; symbols, as it were, or pic- 
torial embodiments, of the divine wrath." 
He says, " After the repeated intima- 
tions which the passage itself conveys 
— especially in chaps, xl, 19; xli, 10, 11, 
22, 25 — concerning the presumptuous 
pride and the tyrannical ferocity of the 
two animals described, it is scarcely to 
be doubted that, according to the clearly 
defined and finally maintained purpose 
of the poet, these are to be regarded as 
symbols not merely of the power, but also 
of the justice, of God; or in other words, 
that the divine attribute of which the 
poet desires to present them as the vivid 
living mirror and manifesting medium, 
is omnipotence in the closest union with 
justice, (more particularly with puni- 
tive justice or wrath,) or omnipotence 
in its judicial manifestations." 

The Fathers of the Church, for in- 
stance, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, 
Cyril, Gregory the Great, Jerome, (Com- 
ment, on Job.) Olympiodorus, attached 
to leviathan a mystical sense, and con- 
ceived him to symbolize the Satan who 
appeared so prominently in the pro- 
logue of the book. The theory has 
been most unequivocally endorsed by 
Bishop Wordsworth, who approvingly 
cites Samuel Wesley, the latter of whom 



CHAPTER XLI. 



277 



regarded leviathan " as an adumbration 
of the king of evil spirits; " and saw in 
him "a picture of the tyrannic? 1 oppres- 
sors of G-od's people, who are types and 
instruments of Satan ; " and deemed that 
"something greater and more terrible 
than a crocodile, and than any dragon 
of the earth or sea, or than Pharaoh 
himself, lies concealed in the words of 
Jehovah under the figure of levia- 
than." — Dissertationcs in Librum Jobi, 
xxxviii. pp. 299-301. "What makes the 
theory more impressive and worthy of 
consideration is, that the very word 
behemah, beast, appears again and again 
in the Scriptures as au unindividual- 
ized symbol of godless men. Psa. xlix, 
12-20; lxxiii, 22: Jer. v, 8; comp. Psa. 
lxviii, 30, (margin,) etc. The Scriptures, 
too, intimately associate Satan with the 
" serpent," (G-en. iii, 1 ; 2 Cor. xi, 3,) the 
"dragon," (Rev. xiii, 2,) the "old ser- 
pent," (Rev. xii, 9 ; xx, 2 ;) in all which, 
we may remark, that it is the reptile or 
saurian creation which the spirit of evil 
has chosen through whom to work ruin 
to our race. But this theory, on the one 
hand, does not account for the associ- 
ated prominence accorded to behemoth, 
(not to speak of the pacific disposition 
ascribed to him,) and on the other, at- 
tributes to Satanic leviathan a domin- 
ion, embracing the brute creation, which 
is quite too universal (xli, 26) to com- 
port with other representations of Scrip- 
ture. Wordsworth vainly tries to ac- 
count for the two in their conjoined 
capacity of Satanic medium, by the con- 
strained view that "behemoth represents 
the evil one acting in the animal and 
carnal elements of man's own constitu- 
tion, and that leviathan symbolizes the 
evil one energizing as his external en- 
emy. Behemoth is the enemy within 
us, leviathan is the enemy without us." 
It may help, in deciphering the hid- 
den meaning of these two animals, to 
look a little more closely at the marks 
by which they are distinguished from 
the brute world which had previously 
passed in array before us. As before 
remarked, they are both amphibious, 
— representatives of two modes of life 
— which, because of its comprehensive- 
ness, gives them a greater claim upon 
our attention. Belonging, one of them 



to the class pachydermata, and the 
other to that of saurians, they, quite as 
much as any of the surviving creation, 
are linked with pre-adamite monsters— 
and possibly with a regime of evil which 
is supposed by some to have preceded 
the period when the world came dis- 
tinctly under our own recorded spiritual 
economy — connected with the garden 
of Eden. (See Kurtz's Bible and As- 
tronomy, section 18.) Both of them, 
consequently, belong to that portion of 
God's creation which may be character- 
ized as abnormal, grotesque, and mon- 
strous. What is of greater significance 
yet, is, thatthe}^ both figured most con- 
spicuously in the mythologies and sym- 
bols of the ancient world. " The hip- 
popotamus was said to have been a 
symbol of the western pole, or the re- 
gion of darkness: distinct, of course, 
from that primeval darkness which 
covered the deep, and from which 
sprang the light supposed to have been 
seen by the My gale, the emblem of 
Buto." — Wilkinson's Ancient Egyp- 
tians, v, 181. For this reason, it may 
have been, that in astronomical rep- 
resentations the hippopotamus was as- 
signed to the neighbourhood of the 
north pole, a place now filled by the 
dragon. Eusebius informs us, {Prozp. 
Evang. iii, chap. 12,) that the hippopota- 
mus was seen figured in this view in the 
temple of ApoUinopolis, standing wiih 
open jaws and gaping upwards as if to 
engulf the descending lights of heav- 
en. Wilkinson (Anc. Eg,, v, 87, 88) re- 
fers to a well-known god with the head 
of a hippopotamus, who, he says, "may 
be one of the characters of the Egyp- 
tian Mars, the animal itself being wor- 
shipped at Papremis, the city of that 
deity. I have only found him so rep- 
resented in small pottery figures, but 
never in the sculptures, though the 
hippopotamus-headed goddess occurs 
in monuments of an early date. The 
connexion of the god Mars and this 
Typhonian animal is remarkable." — 
Compare Herodotus, ii, 59-71. Plutarch, 
speaking of the symbolic figures to be 
seen in the porch of the temple of Mi- 
nerva at Sais, introduces, last of all, the 
sea-horse [hippopotamus] as the symbol 
of impudence. The meaning of the entire 



278 



JOB. 



series of symbols, he says, is this : ' : 
you who are coming into the world, 
and who are going out of it, (that is, 
both young and old,) God hateth impu- 
dence." — De Iside, sec. xxxii. Hora- 
pollo (i, 56) assigns to the claws of the 
hippopotamus the signification of "in- 
justice and ingratitude," as well as to 
the whole animal the force of "time," 
or " an hour." What is of greater con- 
sideration, even yet, is the relation which 
the hippopotamus sustained to the soul 
in the infernal regions — the Ker-neter 
or Amenti — ''the place of the gods." 
(Concerning Amenthes or Amenti, see 
p. 74, and Bun sen's EgijpVs Place in 
History, i, 433.) If, after the deceased 
had been judged by Osiris and his forty- 
two deputies he was convicted of unpar- 
donable faults, he became the prey of 
an infernal monster with the head of a 
hippopotamus. This monster was the 
goddess Thoueris — devourer of souls. 
See further, Lenormant, Ghalcl. Mag., 
p. 86. Also note xxxi, 6. The signifi- 
cance of the discovery made by Schlie- 
mann at Hissarlik (which he supposes 
to have been ancient Troy) does not yet 
appear. "It is that of a brilliant red 
terra-cotta hippopotamus., at a depth of 
twenty-three feet. It is still an enig- 
ma how the animal was so well known 
here as to have been made of clay in a 
form quite faithful to nature." — Troy 
and its Remains, p. 228. On the wide dif- 
fusion of the hippopotamus in ancient 
times, see Metk. Quar. Rev., 1877, p. 248 ; 
also, Murray's Geog. Dist. of An., p. 165. 
Not unlike the hippopotamus, a croc- 
odile couching was, says Horapollo, a 
symbol of the west, and the tail of the 
crocodile was the hieroglyphic charac- 
ter which expressed darkness in the sa- 



cred sculpture of the Egyptians. On 
the contrary, "the crocodile was sup- 
posed by some to be an emblem of the 
sun, its number, sixty, being thought to 
agree with that luminary; and Clemens 
tells us, (Strom., lib. v,) the sun was 
sometimes in a boat, and at others on a 
crocodile." — Wilkinson, Ibid., v, 233. 
The crocodile was peculiarly sacred to 
the god Sevek. Its worship did not 
extend to every part of Egypt: some 
places, considering it the representa- 
tive of the evil being, bore the most 
deadly enmity to it, which led to serious 
feuds between neighbouring towns. — 
Ibid., v, 229. "Nor, indeed," says 
Plutarch, "has the crocodile itself those 
great honours paid it, without some 
probable show of reason for so doing. 
Eor, as this animal has no tongue, [see 
note, p. 267,] it has, on that account, 
been esteemed as the image, as it were, 
of the deit} r himself. Eor the divine 
reason stands not in need of speech, but, 

M arching through still and silent paths, 
The world administers with justice. 

It is observed, likewise, as another 
property of this animal, that though, 
while it is in the water, its eyes are 
covered by a thin, pellucid membrane, 
which comes down from its forehead, 
yet it is able to see when it cannot be 
perceived that it sees, so that in this 
respect, likewise, it bears some resem- 
blance to the first G-od. It is further 
remarked, that in whatever part of the 
country the female crocodile lays her 
eggs, so far will be the extent of the 
rise of the Nile for that season." — De 
Iside, etc., sec. 75. 

The crocodile also figured among the 
terrors which the Egyptian fancied the 
soul to encounter in its journeyings 




FXIOM THE BOOK OF THE BEAD. 



CHAPTER XTJ. 



279 



and transmigrations after the close of 
life. Chapter xxxii of the Ritual of the 
Dead describes the departed as turning- 
back four crocodiles, each one of which 
came from a different cardinal point. 

The most important characteristic of 
these two animals, (behemoth and levia- 
than,) and one for which the preceding 
citations have prepared us, is, that they 
were typhonian — a word which Luke 
uses (Acts xxvii, 14) in describing the 
Euroclydon, when he calls it tv^ovlkoc, 
a typhonic, "tempestuous" wind. In 
explanation of the word, Plutarch re- 
marks: "Every thing that is of an evil 
and malignant nature, either in the ani- 
mal, vegetable, or intellectual world, is 
looked upon in general as the operation 
of Typhon, as part of him, or as the ef- 
fect of his influence." See De Iside, xlix. 
"Furthermore," says Plutarch, abrupt- 
ly, "in the city of Apollo it is an estab- 
lished custom that every one must eat of 
a crocodile." Modern travellers (Denon 
i, 16) speak of Egyptian temples (at Om 
bos) in which the paintings mostly re- 
lated to the ^-v/'S i l ft 
worship of ^>\\ \ %\ 
the croco- I \\ \ T k*l 
dile. The 
god, in one 
of the tem- 
ples, bore 
in part the 
form of a 
man, only 
that it was 
surmount- 
ed by the 
crocodile's 
head. The 
name giv- 
en to this 
deity was 
Sevek. 

It was a 
very gen- 
erally em- 
braced be- 
lief among 
the Egyp- 
tians that 
it was by 
taking on sever. 

himself the form of a crocodile that 
Typhon escaped from Horus, the aven- 




ger of the murder of Osiris, his father. 
In an invocation of Horus we find the 
following: "Come to me quickly on 
this day to guide the holy bark, (the 
sun's boat,) to force back ... all croc- 
odiles into the Nile. Shamelessness 
and sin (?) come and appear upon earth ; 
but when Horus is invoked he destroys 
them. All mankind rejoice when they 
see the sun. They praise the son of 
Osiris, and the serpent turns back." 
(From Brugsch, cited by Duncker, His- 
tory of Antiq., i, 60.) The hieroglyph of 
-^■■^ Sevek was, according to Birch, 

€t\ a crocodile seated on a pjdon. 

*■-* In this and other tropic hiero- 
glyphics, "it appears from the ritual 
that there undoubtedly was an inward 
or esoteric meaning." — Hieroglyphics, 
p. 221. (On its typhonian character see 
note, iii, S.) In India, on each day of 
the great and horrible festival of Siva, 
the devotees worship the sun, pouring 
waters and flowers on a clay image of 
the alligator. (Ward, History, etc., of 
the Hindus, i, 26.) In South Africa, 
"if the Bakwains happened to go near 
to an alligator they would spit on the 
ground, and indicate its presence by 
saying, 'There is sin.' " — Livingstone. 

The Egyptian mythology selected an- 
imals of hideous aspect, or of fierce and 
untamable disposition, or " the most 
senseless and stupid, such as the ass," 
(Plutarch,) to stand as embodiments, or 
more properly as living representatives, 
of Typhon. The statement, however, 
which Bunsen makes (Egypt, etc., i, 442) 
is not to be overlooked, and is to be ac- 
counted at its proper worth, that prior 
to the time of Barneses and his succes- 
sor, about 1300 B. O, " Typhon is one 
of the most venerated a'ud powerful 
gods ; a god which pours blessings and 
life on the rulers of Egypt, just as the 
hateful Kephthys is called 'the benevo- 
lent, protecting sister. ' " 

Unquestionably, at the head of ty- 
phonian animals stand the two, with a 
protracted description of which the ad- 
dress of the Almighty closes. They 
pre-eminently represent, according to 
Plutarch, " the wilder kind, the most 
tierce and untamable," and are conse- 
quently devoted to Set or Typhon. 
(Compare Bunsen's Egypt, i, 425-430.) 



280 



JOB. 



At Hermopolis there is shown a 
statue of Typhon which represents a 
hippopotamus, on the back of which 
stands a hawk, (the sacred bird of Ho- 
rus,) righting with a serpent. (Plutarch, 
ibid.) Typhon usually appears on the 
monuments as a hippopotamus walk- 
ing on its hind legs, and with female 
breasts ; sometimes, 
with sword in hand, 
to show his evil na- 
ture. Sharpe, Egypt. 
MytJiol, p. 8. On the 
seventh of the month 
Tybi, when the Egyp- 
tians celebrated the 
arrival of Isis from 
Phoenicia, they made 
cakes stamped with 
the form of a river- 
horse, bound. (Plu- 
tarch, ibid.) Mr. Birch 
has found, in the Book 
of the Dead, the word 
BAB a, signifying the 
beaut, (behemah.) as an 
epithet of Typhon. As 
we have before seen, 
Cheb or Chab was. 
according to Brugsch 
the hieroglyph for hip- typhon. 

popotamus. The word, he says, literally 
signifies "the concealed," "the crook- 
ed." In the form of Chebu, it bears 
the meaning of " morally crooked, dis- 
torted ; hence, sin, error, badness." 
In illustration, he cites from the Book 
of the Dead, "nen ar-a Chebu em 
ma-t." "I have not committed iniqui- 
ties in the tribunal of truth, (justice,) in 
sede veritatis: (justitias.)" — Hieroglyph. 
Demot.Worterbuch, pp. 1030, 1031. 

These varied, numerous, and neces- 
sarily abbreviated illustrations of the 
Egyptian view of embodied evil have 
been adduced, not with the supposi- 
tion that specifically, or in detail, they 
were, or could be, known to Job, but 
simply to set before the reader in gen- 
eral the significance of behemoth and 
leviathan in ancient mythology, a signif- 
icance of which Job — who in his great 
lamentation (iii, 8) naturally alludes to 
leviathan and the sorcerers, and who 
was profoundly versed in Egyptian mat- 
ters, (see Excursus IX,) — could not by 




any means have been ignorant. These 
two brutes, then, stood as types of evil ; 
and one great lesson they taught Job 
may have been intimately connected 
with the subject of evil. These types of 
evil Job is called upon to comprehend 
and explain. That they belonged to the 
brute world would make the rebuke to 
Job more signal and humiliating. The 
rebuke assumes that the knowledge 
of that which is greater, should imply 
knowledge of that which is less. He 
who understands evil in its infinite re- 
lations to God, ought to understand it 
in its finite relations to earth. To il- 
lustrate by modern science : He who 
professes to unfold the cause of the 
magnetism of the interior of the earth 
should not stickle at the currents that 
play upon its surface. Job had pre- 
sumptuously challenged God to give 
account of his ways, (xiii, 20-28 ;) had 
defiantly charged upon him, that he 
had afflicted his servant beyond what 
was right, (ix, 13-22 ;) in his murmurs 
and complaints had postulated a com- 
prehensive knowledge of the unseen 
world of evil, (xvi, 9-14:) if he be so 
wise with respect to the spiritual and 
unseen — the vast, throbbing currents 
of right and wrong which underlie the 
infinite moral world over which God 
rules and reigns, he must know all 
about evil in all its disclosures through 
the brute creation! "Behold behe- 
moth ! " Explain these typhonian crea- 
tures which live on the outskirts of the 
wide-extended sphere of hidden evil, 
(xl, 20-22 ;) then Job may show reason 
for discoursing upon subjects which 
tower almost infinitely above every hu- 
man understanding. 

On account of greatly magnified 
difficulties which are supposed by some 
to adhere to the behemoth section, it 
has been regarded by De Wette, Ewald, 
and Stuhlmann as an interpolation, 
and attributed by them to the so-called 
"author of the Elihu section," (on 
which see page 197.) and, to one's sur- 
prise, assumed by Dillmanneveu, to be an 
addition from some " inferior Egyptian 
poet who undertook to describe mon- 
sters he had seen in his native land." 
Ewald bases his objections to 'he sec- 
tion before us on the twofold ground of 



CHAPTER XLI. 



281 



position, and of the different character 
existing between the description of these 
two and the earlier description of ani- 
mals — chapters xxxviii and xxxix. 
The first objection assumes that the 
sole object of this long delineation of 
the two animals is to set forth the 
power of God, and, therefore, should be 
connected with the first address, which 
had the same end in view, instead of 
being connected with the second ad- 
dress, which, it is also assumed, ex- 
clusively treats of the justice of God. 
Hirtzel replies that "the same objec- 
tion holds against the challenge of G-od, 
(ch. xl, 9-14,) because it refers as little 
to the justice of God, but really is a 
question of power between Job and his 
Creator." A consistent work of excision 
would then leave but two verses, seven 
and eight, for the second address of the 
Almighty. The stately tree which 
came forth from the divine hand in 
symmetrical proportion stands peeled 
and stripped, with a single, solitary, 
scragged bough. As to the second 
objection, it may be sufficient to indi- 
cate that a more close examination of 
the section shows the same artistic 
hand as in the earlier portions of the 
book. This may be tested by the 
comparison of unusual expressions and 
forms of Hebrew words, which it has 
in common with Job and his friends ; 
for instance, "eyelids of the morning," 
xli. 18 with iii, 9: "children of pride," 
xli, 34 with xxviii, 8; the personifi- 
cation in xli, 22 with xvii, 2 and xxix, 
19, literally, the dew lodged (passed 
the night) in every branch; branches 
of the body, for limbs, (Hebrew, 
baddim.) xli, 12 with xviii, 13; the 
peculiar use of karah, to traffic, with pj;. 

in xli, 6 and vi, 27; the Jobesque use of 

ISST^y, "' upon the dust," xli, 33 andxix, 

25. (on which, see note:) the excep- 
tional employment of D^DX, with the 

meaning of" strong," xli, 15 and xii. 21, 
(in each case see margin ;) also of IS"), 

to "spread." xli, 30 and xvii, 13: the 
form r^VH. xh, 33, and }B¥, xv. 22, etc. 

The theory above adduced, that the 
two animals stand as types of evil, 



meets objections raised against their 
long-drawn-out portraiture. From such 
a stand-point the space they fill in the 
work does not appear unseemly, even 
when compared with that accorded to 
animals not typhonic. Moreover, this 
theory brings forward into bold relief 
the subject of evil, which otherwise 
would not receive direct consideration 
in these discourses of Jehovah. Besides, 
if such a moral interpretation be not 
justifiable, it is to be specially remarked 
that a work which in other respects is 
perfect in its artistic and dramatic make, 
at the outset brought out into great 
prominence the emissary of evil only 
to thrust him, and the cause he so ma- 
liciously represented, entirely from the 
scene, unless, perchance, we are justi- 
fied in fastening upon him oblique al- 
lusions to fiends who may have been 
human. (See notes on xvi, 9, 10, 11.) 
Since the chief objection to the behe- 
moth section is artistic, it will suffice 
to offset it with the unquestionably un- 
prejudiced view of Renan, (page 1,) who 
says, "We should guard ourselves from 
a desire to find in these ancient works 
our principles of composition and taste. 
The style of the fragment of which we 
speak (xl, 15-xli, 34) is that of the bet- 
ter portions of the poem. Nowhere is 
the style (la coup) more vigorous, the 
parallelism more sonorous ; all indicates 
that this singular morceau is from the 
same hand, but not from the same jet, 
as the rest of the discourse of Jehovah." 

EXCURSUS No. IX. 
Job, Edom, Egypt, and Chald^ea. 

In the necessarily brief note on the 
land of Uz, (page 13,) we were led to 
adopt the ancient view, that the home 
of Job was in Edom, (Idumaea.) a coun- 
try no less interesting from its associa- 
tions with the tribe of Esau than from 
the rugged grandeur of its mountain 
scenery, with its rock city Petra, (He- 
brew, Selah.) the tombs, temples, the- 
atres, and even private dwellings of 
which, were cut in "the clefts of the 
rock." — Obadiah 3. These remain to 
the present day, a naked, solitary mon- 
ument, as everlasting as the moun- 
tains themselves, to the truthfulness 



282 



JOB. 



of the word of G-od. Isa. xxxiv, 6-15 ; 
Jer. xlix, 1-17 ; Ezek. xxv, 13, xxxv, 
3-9 ; Obad. 3, 4 ; and Mai. i, 3, 4. This 
land first appears in history as mount 
Seir, the home of the Horites. (Gen. 
xiv, 6.) In the course of time the 
Horites were overpowered by " the 
children of Esau," (Deut. ii, 12.) where- 
upon the country took also the name 
of Edom, (redness,) a name it after- 
ward bore in the Scriptures. The 
Greeks called the same country 'ldov- 
fiaia, (Idumasa,) which Josephus re- 
garded as " a softer and more elegant 
pronunciation " of what should be more 
properly written Adtif/a, (Adoma.) The 
length of Edom proper was about one 
hundred miles, and its breadth about 
twenty miles, on an average. For the 
most part it consisted of mountain 
ranges, not far from two thousand feet 
above the sea, though not without ex- 
tended valleys and plateaus of arable 
land, which in ancient times unques- 
tionably furnished a richness of soil 
answering to " the fatness of the earth" 
which Isaac, in prophetic vision, prom- 
ised his wayward and disappointed 
son. (Genesis xxvii, 39.) Even of the 
present condition of this mountainous 
country Dean Stanley writes: "The 
first thing that struck me in turning 
out of the 'Arabah up the defiles that 
lead to Petra was, that we had suddenly 
left the desert. Instead of the abso- 
lute nakedness of the Sinaitic valleys, 
we found ourselves walking on grass, 
sprinkled with flowers, and the level 
platforms on each side were filled with 
sprouting corn ; and this continues 
through the whole descent to Petra, 
and in Petra itself. The next peculi- 
arity was, when, after having left the 
summit of the pass, or after descending 
from mount Hor, we found ourselves 
insensibly en circled with rocks of deep- 
ening and deepening red. Red, indeed, 
even from a distance, the mountains of 
' red ' Edom appear, but not more so 
than the granite of Sinai ; and it is not 
till one is actually in the midst of them 
that this red becomes crimson, and that 
the wonder of the Petra colors fully 
displays itself." — Sinai and Palestine, 
p. 88. The approach to Petra, even 
irom a distance, deeply impresses the 



traveller. " "We wound," says Laborde, 
"round a peak surmounted by a single 
tree. The view from that point ex- 
hibited a vast, frightful desert — a cha- 
otic sea, the waves of which were 
petrified. Following the beaten path, 
we saw before us mount Hor, crowned 
by the tomb of the prophet, if we are 
to credit the ancient traditions pre- 
served by the people of that country . . . 
But at length the road leads the traveller 
to the heights above one more ravine, 
whence he discovers within his horizon 
the most singular spectacle, the most 
enchanting picture, which nature has 
wrought in her grandest mood of crea- 
tion." — Arabia Petrcea, p. 154. 

" You descend from wide downs, . . . 
and before you opens a deep cleft be- 
tween rocks of red sandstone rising 
perpendicularly to the -height of one, 
two, three hundred feet. This is the 
sik or 'cleft;' through this flows — if 
one may use the expression — the dry 
torrent, which, rising in the mountains 
half an hour hence, gives the name by 
which alone Petra is now known 
among the Arabs, wady Mousa, [val- 
ley of Moses.] . . . Follow me, then, 
down this magnificent gorge — the most 
magnificent, beyond all doubt, which I 
have ever beheld. The rocks are al- 
most precipitous . . . The gorge is about 
a mile and a half long, and the opening 
of the cliffs at the top is throughout 
almost as narrow as the narrowest 
part of the defile of Pfeffers." — Stan- 
ley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 89. 

For the spectacle which rises before 
the vision at the end of the long defile 
we refer the reader to the works of 
Robinson, Olin, Laborde, and Stanley. 

It does not lie within our province 
to treat of the eventful history of the 
strange people who inhabited these 
mountainous heights. After filling an 
important page in the history of the 
world, at about the Christian era not 
only the nation, but even the name of 
the country itself, Idumasa, quite disap- 
peared from the knowledge of men. 

The readiest route for the long lines 
of caravans, laden with merchandise, 
which in ancient times travelled from 
the Persian Gulf to Egypt, and thence 
probably to Ethiopia, lay along the 



CHAPTER XLI. 



283 



boundaries of Idumsea, so that in the 
course of time Petra became an entre- 
pot of great importance. (See Strabo, 
xvi, ch. iv, 24.) Communication with 
the seaports of Phoenicia on the one 
hand was no more difficult in ancient 
times than now; while, on the other 
hand, the desert lying between Idu- 
ma?a and Chakhea was traversed at the 
time when Job lived no less easily than 
at the present. (See note, chap, i, 17.) 
If the commonly accepted view, that 
the home of Job was in the land of 
Edom, be the correct one, we have the 
key to the great knowledge Job pos- 
sessed of the outer world, even though 
he may have lived in patriarchal times, 
seventeen or eighteen centuries before 
Christ. Recent discoveries show that 
long before the centuries mentioned a 
high civilization had been attained in 
Chaldsea as well as in Egypt, and that 
thus early discoveries had been made in 
the sciences and the arts corresponding 
to the great knowledge displayed in the 
book of Job. "There is no reason," 
says Layard, " why we should not 
assign to Assyria the same remote 
antiquity we claim for Egypt. The 
monuments of Egypt prove that she 
did not stand alone in civilization and 
power. At the earliest period we find 
her contending with enemies already 
nearly, if not fully, as powerful as her- 
self; and amongst the spoil from Asia, 
and the articles of tribute brought by 
subdued nations from the northeast, 
are vases as elegant in shape, stuffs as 
rich in texture, and chariots as well 
adapted to war, as her own. It is not 
improbable that she herself [Egypt] 
was indebted to the nations of Western 
Asia for the introduction of arts in 
which they excelled, and that many 
things in common use were brought 
from the banks of the Tigris." See 
further, his Nineveh, ii, 225-235; and 
George Smith's Chaldcean Account, pp. 
28-31, 312. 

The language of Accad, the dead 
language of primitive Chaldasa. to- 
gether with its institutions and civili- 
zation, served as a fountain-head of 
knowledge to a large portion of the 
very ancient world. The Phoenician 
never forgot that his ancestors once 



dwelt along the Persian G-ulf, and even 
the Israelite traced his ancestral home 
to Ur of the Chaldees. (See Kenrick's 
PhcL'nicia, pp. 48, 52.) "These Accad- 
ians were the earliest civilizers of 
Western Asia, and it is to them that 
we have to trace the arts and sciences, 
the religious traditions and the phi- 
losophy, not only of the Assyrians, but 
also of the Phoenicians, the Aramaeans, 
and even the Hebrews themselves. It 
was, too, from Chaldasa that the gems 
of Greek art and of much of the Greek 
pantheon and mythology originally 
came. Columnar architecture reached 
its first and highest development in 
Babylonia ... It is difficult to say how 
much of our present culture is not owed 
to the stunted, oblique-eyed people of 
ancient Babylonia . . . Both Jerusalem 
and Athens were profoundly influenced 
by the ideas which had their first start- 
ing point in primeval Accad." — Sayce, 
Bahylonian Literature, p. 6-14. 

On the other hand, not many days' 
journey from Petra lay the land of Ca- 
naan, (Phoenicia.) with its maritime 
cities, one of which, Zidon, was men- 
tioned by Jacob in his dying addresses 
as "a haven for ships." Genesis xlix, 
13; compare Joshua xix, 28, 29. As 
we have already seen, (note on xli, 6,) at 
the time of Homer the Phoenicians were 
the merchants of the world. Their com- 
mercial activity took its rise with that 
of the people themselves. No sooner 
had they "settled in the parts which 
they now inhabit," than they " began 
at once," says Herodotus, (i, 1,) "to 
adventure on long voyages, freighting 
their vessels with the wares of Egypt 
and Assyria." Not to speak of the an- 
cient terminus of caravan lines at Ger- 
rha, on the Persian Gulf, with its com- 
munications with India, Phoenicia itself 
would by its seaports open many out- 
looks through which Job might take 
a glimpse of the sea and the wonders 
of distant lands. Through the Cauaan- 
ites Job may have obtained his varied 
knowledge of metallurgy, even if he 
had no information of the extensive 
mines in Arabia, and especially those 
of the land of Midian, the extent of 
which the recent exploration of Captain 
Burton (1878) serves to make known. 



284 



JOB. 



Burton describes the country as the 
land of ruined mines, with shafts, tun- 
nels, furnaces, workmen's towns and 
princely cities, now the very picture of 
desolation. Comp. Num. xxxi, 1, 22, 23. 
On this section see Heeren, Asiatic Re- 
searches, i, 325-368, ii, 300-303; Raw- 
linson, Ancient Monarchies, i, 551-563, 
iii, 14-16, sec. ed. ; Kenrick, Phoenicia, 
chap, vi ; Records of the Past, vol. viii. 

To the south of Idumsea, within a 
few days' journey, lay the wondrous 
land of Egypt, with its solemn temples, 
its pyramids, its tombs, and its repos- 
itories of religious knowledge. The 
monuments both in Egypt and Chaldasa 
bear witness to a wide-extended com- 
munication between the peoples of the 
ancient world. An inscription at Kar- 
nak shows that in the sixteenth cen- 
tury before Christ, Tuthmosis III. re- 
ceived tribute from Syria in a coin of 
such a make, and in such sums, as to 
justify the conclusion that both the 
Babylonian money weight and the im- 
perial Babylonian weight were at that 
time in use in Syria. See further, 
Duncker, History of Antiquity, i, 304. 
Compare Joshua vii, 21. There can 
be but little question that the com- 
merce between Egypt and Chaldasa be- 
fore alluded to reached as far back 
as two thousand years B. C, and that 
Arab merchants carried the products of 
South Arabia — the spices of Yemen as 
well as the products and manufactures 
of India, especially their silks — to 
Babylon, and that thence a similar com- 
merce was maintained with Egypt. 
Duncker, ibid, i, 226, 305, 317-323. 

It is not without deep significance 
that Job makes appeal to "wayfaring 
men '' in confirmation of the advanced 
position he was taking against "the 
friends." (See note, xxi, 29.) For, not- 
withstanding its abominable distortions, 
religious light was disseminated far 
and wide. This is indicated by the 
strikingly similar features of ancient 
idolatry, of which the worship of the 
bull may stand as a type, whether you 
speak of the Mnevis or Apis- of Egypt, 
the winged bull of Assyria, the bull 
Nandi of the Hindu, or even the bull 
of Japan, with his horn breaking the 
mundane egg. A similar worship of the 



sun prevailed throughout the ancient 
world — in Egypt under the form of Ra, 
(some say Osiris;) in Phoenicia, of Ba- 
al; in Arabia and Assyria, of Shams, 
or Shamas; among the Persians, of 
Mithras; in India, of Surya, or Mitra ; 
and by the wandering Celt, of Beal or 
Bealam — an almost universal worship, 
with which Job declared himself un- 
tainted. (Note xxxi, 26, 27.) In like 
manner Lenormant remarks that the 
Babylonian religion, adopted by the As- 
syrians with only one important modi- 
fication, was, in its essential principles, 
and in the spirit which guided its ideas, 
a religion of the same kind as that of 
Egypt, and of nearly all other great hea- 
then religions. See further, his Chal- 
doean Magic, pp. Ill, 112. 

The distance from Egypt was not so 
great but that it may have been as 
easily visited by Job as by Abraham, 
Thales, Pythagoras, Herodotus, and Pla- 
to. (Comp. Diodorus Siculus, i, chap, 
vii.) The free and natural use of figures 
based upon Egypt, its scener} r , vege- 
tation, customs, works, and its animal 
kingdom, must have arrested the atten- 
tion of even the cursory reader of this 
book. For more easy reference, we 
group together the more important of 
these allusions. Such are leviathan 
with his sorcerers, (iii, 8 ;) the building 
of mausolea or pyramidal structures for 
the burial of the mighty dead, (iii, 13-1 5 ;) 
the mention of the Nile, (which Job 
calls a sea, as it was called in Egypt,) 
with its watchers,its rank mire-growths, 
(vii, 12, viii, 11;) the employment of 
Egyptian words, yeor, (aur,) for streams, 
a name also used for the Nile, (xxviii, 
10 ;) with which agrees the cuneiform 
yaruhu for the same river. We have 
also the Egyptian ahhou, "flag," which 
occurs in a papyrus of early date, and 
is kindred with akh-akh, "green," "ver- 
dant ; " as well as gome for papyrus, 
which word Brugsch identifies with the 
Coptic, (viii, 11;) and an allusion to the 
papyrus boats of the Nile, which corre- 
sponds with the view of Brugsch, that 
the papyrus was specially employed in 
Egypt for making light, swilt boats, 
(ix, 26.) Such also are the unmis- 
takable references to Egyptian judicial 
customs, among which is the requir- 



CHAPTER XLI. 



285 



ing of the accuser to present his accu- 
sation in writing, and of the accused 
to sign his reply, (xxxi, 35 ;) the en- 
larged description of the war horse, as 
well as of several wild animals indig- 
enous to Egypt, among which the 
hippopotamus and crocodile fill the 
most important place. (Chap, xxxix, 
19-25; xl, 15-24; xli.) 

Along the banks of the Nile the 
light of a primeval revelation shone 
with greater clearness and effulgence, 
we are disposed to think, than in any 
other part of the ancient heathen world. 
What has been said of Hindostan, that 
"one could almost imagine that before 
God planted Christianity upon earth he 
took a branch from the luxuriant tree 
and threw it down to India," would 
hold equally true of ancient Egypt. 
The increasing discoveries of our age 
have called great attention to this an- 
cient land, confirming the justness of 
the observation of Herodotus, (ii, 37,) 
that "they [the Egyptians] are relig- 
ious to excess, far beyond any other 
race of men," and revealing the pos- 
session of religious truths, in a crude 
form, it is true, but sufficiently distinct 
to show that they are the relics of a 
divine revelation, of which the mode of 
communication may never be known. 
The sceptical speculation of the day 
makes religious knowledge a gradual 
development; on the contrary, the read- 
ings of monumental remains disclose 
declension and loss of such knowledge ; 
also, that the tendencies of all religions, 
with the exception of that of Christ, are 
downward, unless counteracted by the 
bringing in, from without, of religious 
truth. There is a disposition, too, to 
find a complete circle of such divine 
truth in olden false religions, so much 
so that the lover of antiquity beholds, 
with perverted e} r e. its perverted relig- 
ions, and becomes their devotee, if not 
their worshipper. Especially is this the 
case with Egypt. The life of its peo- 
ple, their customs, manners, sciences, 
thoughts, and inner being, stand before 
us in monumental array, with a dis- 
tinctness hardly less vivid than that 
of mediaeval history. The mind is 
charmed at the contemplation, and 
disposed to find perfection not only in 



such a civilization, but in the religious 
belief of such a people. It is quite 
prepared to see in the brilliant light- 
points which beautify and somewhat 
relieve the Egyptian night, well-rounded 
orbs of doctrine and of faith. Among 
recent writers on Egyptology (1817) 
is L'abbe Ancessi. With an imagina- 
tion as vivid as that which he ascribes 
to the Egyptians themselves, he con- 
ceives a comprehensive scheme of 
spiritual belief, and invests the crude 
conceptions, of a debased mythology 
with the garb of the advanced doctrines 
of Christian faith. The casual reader 
might easily suppose that Nile papyri, 
painted tombs, and sculptured stelae 
contain "the oracles of God" no les3 
truly than the Holy Scriptures them- 
selves. 

The most significant of the resem- 
blances which L'abbe finds is here ad- 
duced, for its strange coincidence with 
one of the sentiments of Job's proposed 
inscription, (p. 131 and Excursus V,) as 
well as for its bearing upon 
the exegesis of the passage *£& "> & 
it so closely resembles. It V" - ^ j j 
appears in the "Book of f™^ 5 ^ 
the Dead;" the authority 
is that of Lepsius, Todten- 
buch, 130, 28. 

The personal pronoun is 
repeated three times; the 
same particle is used before 
the word " flesh " in both 
languages ; in the Egyp- 
tian e M-haaouef—from his 
flesh; in the Hebrew, Mib- 
besari — from my flesh. By 
the citation of another 
formula from the same _ b 'X 
"Book of the Dead," "He U | § £ 
sees from his eyes, he hears CBCgl '§ Z 
from his ears, the truth," >3l Tk | 
in which the same prepo- a «) ; | 
sition e M, " from," is used, ># §" "3° 

Ancessi claims that in nei- E$r$ S 'M 
ther case can it be used in a ^^ ° ^ 
separistic sense, to wit: that the soul 
sees "away from." or apart from the 
body. "With this interpretation agrees 
grammatical usage elsewhere, as An- 
cessi shows in his Comparative Gram- 
mar of the Semitic and Hamitic Lan- 
guages — Etudes de Grammaire Com- 



286 



JOB. 



paree, etc., le theme M. Parity of reason, 
he claims, demands that the preposition 
min should be rendered in like man- 
ner from in the book of Job, (Job et 
VEgypte, etc., 144, 146,) in other words, 
that Hebrew and hieroglypt both 
taught that the time should come in 
the history of the disembodied soul 
when, through the medium of the flesh, 
it should behold God. 

After the fullest and frankest recog- 
nition of the great light the Egyptian, 
and even the Assyrian, once enjoyed, 
there rises before our eyes an obverse 
view painful to contemplate. The 
ghastliness of a mummy — with which 
frequently the evidences and memorials 
of their faith were entombed — symbol- 
izes the degradation, despair, and death 
which characterized their religion, and 
which are not to be covered up nor 
ignored by splendid sentiments gath- 
ered here and there from Egyptian 
rituals; even though their substratum 
may have been the immortality of some 
souls, a rigid ordeal for the soul and its 
deeds, and the future revivifying of the 
body. 

A marked, and, indeed, the most 
salient feature of Egyptian worship, 
was its adoration of brutes. This wor- 
ship reaches back to the most ancient 
times. To a contemplative mind the 
spectacle is painful and unaccountable 
— that of the most enlightened nation 
of antiquity prostrate before the bestial 
world. It is to be confessed that the 
serious view which the heathen Plu- 
tarch takes of this worship is more 
worthy of consideration than that of 
the Christian Clemens, which we ad- 
duce below. The former wrote : " The 
Egyptians, at least the greater part of 
them, by adoring the animals them- 
selves, and caring for them as for gods, 
have crammed their ritual full with 
subjects of laughter and opprobrium. 
Nor is this the least evil which results 
from their stupidity. A dangerous 
notion is implanted, which drives the 
weak and simple-minded into the worst 
forms of superstition, and the shrewder 
and more daring into atheism and 
beast-like speculations." — Delside,\xxi. 
Clemcis of Alexandria, who was him- 
self, when a heathen, initiated into the 



Egyptian mysteries, escorts us into the 
remotest part of the sacred adytum, 
and ULder the guidance of a shrine- 
bearer, who, as '-with a grave air he 
sings a paean in the Egyptian tongue, 
draws aside a small portion of the 
veil, as if about to show us the god, and 
makes us burst into a loud laugh. For 
the god you sought is not there, but 
a cat, or a crocodile, or a serpent sprung 
from the soil, or some such brute 
animal, which is more suited to a cave 
than a temple. The Egyptian deity 
appears, a beast rolling himself on a 
purple coverlet." — Ffardwick, ii, 271. 

The remark of Olympiodorus, that 
" what the images of the gods are to the 
Greeks, that the beasts are to the Egyp- 
tians — symbols of the gods to whom 
they are consecrated," does not include 
the whole truth. Plutarch institutes 
a like comparison between the Egyp- 
tians and the Greeks, but charges upon 
the former, or at least the greater part of 
them, the adoring of the animals them- 
selves, and the revering of them as gods. 
(Ibid., lxxi.) "They reverence some 
animals," says Diodorus Siculus, "ex- 
travagantly — icad' vTTFp(3oA7]v — not only 
when they are alive, but after they are 
dead." Of this worship the same 
author gives an enlarged description, 
together with its inexpressible abomi- 
nations, (i, 83-88, Booth edit. ;) mourn- 
ful facts to which both Herodotus and 
Strabo bear witness. On the Egyptian 
worship of beasts see Dollinge'r, The 
Gentile and' the Jew, i, 454-460; Prich- 
ard, Egyptian Mythology, 301-343. 

According to Bunsen, (God in His- 
tory, i, 226,) the worship of brutes was 
introduced into the established religion 
of Egypt about the second c ntury after 
Menes, and not earlier than the second 
dynasty. It gradually displaced the 
purer worship of Osiris, together with 
the complicated hierarchy of gods, who 
are generally comprehended in three 
orders. The principle before suggested, 
of the tendency of false religions to de- 
terioration and debasement, thus finds 
ready and painful illustration in Egypt 
no less than among the Semites gener- 
ally, as well as in India in the transi- 
tion from Vedism to Brahminism and 
thence to Buddhism. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



287 



At what time the abominations of 
phallic worship were introduced into 
Egypt does not so readily appear. No 
degradation of religion — of its rites 
and culture — can be imagined, more 
outrageous than this. Certainly this 
wo? ship in Egypt was closely linked 
with that of Osiris, to whose tragic 
dismemberment Egyptian mythology 
traced its origin. (See Plutarch, ibid., 
xviii; Maurice, Indian Antiquities, ii, 
161-172 ; Hardwick, ibid., ii, 279-283.) 
A veil should be drawn over the sub- 
ject, even in the opinion of Plutarch. 
who declares that he "omits the more 
harsh and shocking parts of it," and 
that "the mouth should be washed 
after the recital of them." (Ibid., sec. xx.) 
That veil has been sufficiently uplifted 
by Herodotus, (ii, 48, 49,) who " relates 
things which bear witness to such a 
bestiality that we would gladly be 
able for the honour of human nature to 
deny ihem." — Tholuck. The only jus- 
tification for the reference to the sub- 
ject here, is found in the disposition on 
the part of sceptical philosophy to find 
on the banks of the Nile the fountain- 
head of religion, and that, too, to the 
disparagement of the Bible. 

The monuments testify of an ancient 
practice of sacrificing human beings in 
counexion with the worship of ser- 
pents, as is evinced by the accom- 
panying picture, from a tomb first dis- 



covered by Belzoni at Thebes. Before 
the erected head of the serpent, the 
attitude of which, on a line with the 
throats of the victims, tells its gratifica- 
tion in the offered blood, are three 
human beings just beheaded by the 
officiating priest. Beneath the arch of 
the serpent sits the goddess, while the 
sacred asp, bearing a human head, is 
seated upon the serpent's tail. 

For other pictorial illustrations of this 
mournful subject the reader is referred to 
Kitto's History of Palestine, i, 583, 584. 
In one of these, women, probably 
priestesses, are the active agents who 
bind the victims and hold them as they 
bleed to death. Notwithstanding tho 
denial by Egypto-lovers that the Egyp- 
tians sacrificed men to their idols, (for 
instance, Wilkinson in Rawlinsoh's He- 
rodotus, ii. 71,) the evidence of the mon- 
uments confirms the testimony of Ma- 
netho and many Greek writers (to wit, 
Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, etc.) to the 
prevalence among the Egyptians of 
this revolting practice. The testimony 
of Manetho, who was a native Egyptian 
priest, and lived in the third century 
B. C, is to the effect that in the city 
Eileithyia, every year, in the dog days, 
some so-called typhonian men (that is, 
red-haired men) were burnt alive, and 
their ashes thrown into the air with 
winnowing shovels, (Plutarch, Mor- 
alia, p. 380 ;) and that three men were 




SACRIFICING II CM AN BEINGS TO THE WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT. 



sacrificed to Hera in times remote at 
Heliopolis, but that King Amosis (about 
B.C. 1500) put an end to the custom 
by substituting images of wax. (Por- 
phyry, De Ab*t., ii, 55.) Athenreus 
speaks of a work written by Seleucus 
which treats expressly of the human 
sacrifi'^ep offered by the Egyptians. Os- 
burn declares that '"human sacrifices 
always formed an essential part of the 
ritual of their idolatry." — Mon. His. of 



Egypt, ii, 454. See Kenrick, Anc. Egypt, 
i, 440-448; Denon, Trav., ii, 181, 208. 
Such are some of the dark features 
which the gloomy and austere religion 
of the Nile must have presented in the 
days of Job. Notwithstanding his ex- 
tensive acquaintance with the coun- 
try and the institutions of its people, 
the candid reader of Job, and the no 
hss candid student of Egypt, cannot 
fail, we think, of the conviction that 



288 



JOB. 



ihe religion of Job differed "by a whole 
Leaven " from that of Egypt. Compare 
Hard wick, Christ and other Masters. 
ii, 306-360. 

But, first, before pronouncing upon 
Job's relationship to contemporary re- 
ligions, let us again glance at the other 
greatly enlightened neighbour, Chaldasa, 
The pantheon of the Chnldsean, from 
most ancient times, was well stocked 
with divinities, the leading ones of 
which bore a remarkable family re- 
semblance to those of Egypt, as well 
as to the more sanguinary deities of 
Phoenicia. The Chaldseans, however, 
do not seem to have ever degraded 
themselves to the level of the Egyp- 
tians, either in worship of the brute 
creation or in the adoption into their 
cultus of the shocking phallic worship. 
Lenormant supposes that underneath 
their idolatrous worship lay a belief in 
a sole and universal Divine Being, 
whose nature, as iu all the ancient 
pantheisms, was to be at the same 
time one and many. (Chald. Magic, 
] 28-131.) This may have been true 
of the primordial faith transmitted by 
Noah, in some stages of its deterio- 
ration, but the first records in monu- 
mental history point to an idolatry un- 
mistakably corrupt, from which, so 
far as concerns the popular mind, the 
essence of true religion had been lost. 
Lenormant, without sufficient reason, 
regards this supposed pantheism as the 
primordial notion of all the ancient 
Kuschito-Semitic religions. 

Unquestionably, at the time of Job, 
whether he lived early or comparatively 
late, the popular religion of Egypt, 
Arabia, Phoenicia, Syria in general, 
Chaldaea, and Assyria, was marked by 
most revolting features, for which it is 
difficult for the lovers of natural re- 
ligion to find theories of extenuation 
or even words of apology. It now ap- 
pears that the Chaldaean was equally 
barbarous with the Egyptian and the 
Phoenician, for the latest researches 
affirm the prevalence in early Babylonia 
of human sacrifices. Of greater im- 
portance yet, to the religious mind, is 
the fact that the victim was evident!}' 
offered vicariously, which is sufficiently 
confirmed from the earlier inscriptions. 



(See W. R. Cooper, Resurrection of 
Assyria, p. 58.) " A curious fragment 
of an old Accadian hymn describes 
how the sinner must give his dearest 
and nearest, even his offspring, for the 
sin of his soul, ' the head of his child 
for his own head, the brow of his child 
for his own brow, the breast of his 
child for his own breast;' and a passage 
in the great work on astronomy informs 
us, that the innocent sacrifice must be 
offered up by fire. The bloody sacri- 
fices offered to Moloch, therefore, were 
no Semitic invention, but handed on 
to them, with so much else, by the 
Turanian population of Chaldasa." — 
Sayce, Bab. Lit, p. 46, (1878.) (See al- 
so his article, " Human Sacrifice among 
the Ancient Babylonians, in Trans. 
Soc. Bib. Arch., iv, 1, pp. 25-31.) Comp. 
Micah vi, 7. Tins fact assumes a deep 
interest from the consideration that 
the early Babylonian language com- 
bined distinctly marked Turanian, Se- 
mitic, and Aryan elements, as though the 
great races were more or less involved 
in this awful form of sacrifice. Such 
a conglomeration of language serves as 
a confirmation to the Scripture truth 
of the dispersion, and the confusion of 
tongues, events which took place in 
the land of Shinar, where Babylon was 
situated. Eor information on the early 
Chaldsean religion the reader is re- 
ferred to Rawlinson, Ancient Mon., i, 
110-141; his Herodotus, i, 480-517; 
and Lenormant, Chald. Magic, ch. x. 

In the midst of universal idolatry 
Job stands forth the worshipper of one 
God. The book of Job discloses Cod 
as a spiritual being, (ix, 11; x, 4 ; xxiii, 
8, 9,) unlimited in power, (ix, 4-13 ; x, 
7; xi, 10; xii, 14-25, etc.,) unchange- 
able, (xxiii, 13,) omniscient, (xi, 11 ; 
xxi, 22 ; xxviii, 24 : xxxiv. 21, 22,) holy, 
(iv, 18; xv, 15; xxv, 5; xxxiv, 10.) and 
merciful, (v, 17-29; xxii, 17, 18; xxxiii, 
24; xxxvi, 15, 16.) Job displays a 
consummate knowledge of the moral 
law in its most subtle relations to evil, 
(seep. 189,) and a philosophy of morals 
which constantly reminds us of the 
teaching of Christ and his apostles. 
The theory of the moral government 
of God during the course of the con- 
troversy was beclouded, but the sequel 



CHAPTER XL1. 



289 



discloses God as Jehovah, who chastens 
that he may save, and who afflicts that 
man's highest good may be secured, 
(v, 17-26; xxxiii, 19-30; xxxvi, 8-12; 
xlii, 12.) This moral government grasps 
the minutiae of life's actions, (x, 14 ; 
xi, 10; xiv, 3, 16: xxiii, 10-12; xxxi, 4: 
xxxiv, 21, 22,) adequately recompenses 
both the just and the wicked, (viii, 3-7 ; 
xxii, 2-7 ; xxvii,13-23 ; xxxiv,l 1,12,19,) 
even to the punishment of the latter 
in another life, (see p. 149,) and com- 
prehends the entire world of the dead, 
(xx, 11; xxvi, 5, 6; xxxvi, 20,) holding 
forth to the just the prospect of a final 
deliverance from the gloom of sheol. 
See pp. 74, 109. 

If Job speaks of idolatry it is in un- 
reserved condemnation, and that he 
may absolve himself from any conceiv- 
able taint, (xxxi, 26-28.) And what 
is of greater moment is, that the idol- 
atry which he specifies is that most 
common to ancient times — the worship 
of the sun and moon — which, however 
disguised, lay at the basis of ancient 
mythology ; for the sun everywhere 
came to be regarded as the source of 
life, and the moon was taken up as 
the feminine complement; all which 
sooner or later drifted into the corrup- 
tions of phallic or procreative worship. 

On the subject of satanology or de- 
mon ology, the views of the book are 
clear and distinct. There is disclosed, 
in antagonism to the good, one power- 
ful, subtle, pervasive spirit of evil, en- 
dowed with conscious and extended 
knowledge, whose theatre of activity 
is the world, and whose subordinate 
power over nature is not confined to 
"outward circumstances" — the bare 
employment of physical resources — as 
some would hold, but reaches to a cer- 
tain persuasive influence over men, as 
is evinced by the by no means fortuitous 
movement of Chaldsean hordes against 
Job. (Pp. 23, 34.) In contrast with 
such enlightened views, views which 
wonderfully anticipate those of the 
Xew Testament, recent exploration 
has brought to light from among the 
Babylonians a system of demonology 
which crowded the elements with evil 
Spirts, who were apparently outside 
the control of higher spirits, and who 

Vol. V.— 20 



wrought inconceivable mischief. These 
demons spread snares for men, and 
were the cause of all evils. Diseases 
were pre-eminently their work. The 
most formidable demons took the form of 
the most dreaded diseases. This prob- 
ably gave rise to the belief that various 
members of the body were acted upon by 
particular classes of evil spirits. One 
class, for instance, seized upon the head ; 
another, upon the forehead; another, up- 
on the chest ; while another, supreme in 
malice, came down, upon the life of man, 
and " bent him like a bundle." The 
bodies of men, together with unculti- 
vated wilds and deserts, furnished them 
a dwellingplace. Even the dead arose 
from their graves, and in the form of 
vampires attacked the living. The un- 
der world sent forth its horrible sprites, 
called imriii, and the enormous uru- 
ku, a species of hobgoblins and larvae, 
to haunt and terrify men. By incan- 
tations, demons of various grades might 
be exorcised, and even the highest genii 
or demi-gods be driven away. By 
the use of charms, amulets, and magic 
words, the Chaldsean conceived that the 
bodies and homes of men might be pro- 
tected against their baleful presence. 
This belief gave rise to an extensive 
system of magic. Forms of conjura- 
tion, which we cite from Lenormant, 
(ibid., p. 30,) will further illustrate the 
ten orism which everywhere prevailed : 

On high they bring trouble, and below they 
bring confusion. 

Tailing in rain from the sky, issuing from 
the earth, they penetrate the strong timbers, 
the thick timbers; they pass from house to 
house. 

Doors do not stop them. 

Bolts do not stop them. 

They glide in at the doors like serpents. 

They enter by the windows like the wind . . . 

They take the child from the knees of the 
man ; 

They make the free woman leave the house 
when she has borne a child. 

They, they are the voices which cry and 
which pursue mankind. 

Again : — 

From the four cardinal points the impetuos- 
ity of their invasion burns like fire. 

They violently attack the dwellings of man. 

They wither everything in the town or ill 
the country. 

They oppress the free man and the slave. 

They pour down like a violent tempest in 
heaven and earth. —Ilm/., p. 29. 

O. T. 



290 



JOB. 



The reader is referred to Lenormant 
for numerous illustrations. 

From such considerations it is clear 
that the religious light reflected from 
the book of Job did not emanate either 
from Chaldsea, ancient Canaan, (Phoe- 
nicia,) or Egypt. On every subject 
embraced by the natural religion of the 
ancients this book speaks with a voice 
distinct and clear, and from a plane as 
much more elevated above that of his 
times as the supernatural is above the 
natural. Of all the doctrines considered 
by Job, that on which the least light is 
shed, is the subject of the intermediate 
state of the dead. Even here, the sim- 
plicity of Job's belief stands in impres- 
sive contrast to the cumbrous faith of 
the Egyptian, with its long and compli- 
cated series of transformations, and its 
silly punitive transmigrations, (pp. 190, 
191,) as well as to that of the Chaldasan, 
overladen not only by hobgoblins, larva?, 
and every conceivable grade of demon- 
iacal existence, but by human dead met- 
amorphosed into vampires. Against 
such beliefs Job, by implication, utters 
his protest, (vii, 9, 10; xiv, 21, 22; comp. 
xiv, 12;) at least, in his profoundest 
melancholy he never involves himself 
in any entanglement which conflicts 
with the pure and eventual hope of 
the pious Semite. The work is as re- 
markable for what it does not, as for 
what it does, say. Job stands forth 
from the degraded environment of his 
times, an exponent of truth, the ele- 
ments of which are no less simple, pure, 
and ultimate, than those of light. The 
age in which he lived was as powerless 
to taint his mind or pollute his heart as 
the Egyptian morass of which he him- 
self speaks was to corrupt the light 
cast back from its surface. The con- 
clusion we deem legitimate, that " God, 
who at sundry times and in divers man- 
ners spake in time past unto the fathers 
by the prophets," (Heb. i, 1,) elected 
from the broad wastes of heathendom 
a Job, together with a Chaldcean Abra- 
ham, to the divine order of prophets, 
(Gen. xx, 7 ;) to receive from above the 
light of divine truth, that, purely and 
without contamination, it might be com- 
municated to the darkened family of 
man. 



EXCURSUS No. X. 

Astronomy and the Book of Job. 

The advanced knowledge of astron- 
omy displayed in the book of Job may, 
humanly speaking, seem to demand a 
later period for its writing than that 
which has been assumed during the 
progress of the present work. Among 
scholars, it is recognised that this 
science received early and profound 
attention among nations widely separ- 
ated, and that, in some cases at least, 
important discoveries were made be- 
yond the mere superficial survey of the 
heavens. Until recently it has been 
in dispute which of the four great 
astronomical peoples, the Chinese, the 
Hindu, the Egyptian, or the Chaldee, 
have taken the lead in the discov- 
ery of the principles of astronomical 
science. The first of those mentioned 
boasts of attainments in this science 
which, if valid, would give that people 
the priority and the palm. It seems 
now to be conceded that the earliest 
Chinese observations we are acquainted 
with, sufficiently precise to afford any 
result useful to astronomy, were made 
about the year 1100 before our era. 
These related to meridianal altitudes 
of the sun, the obliquity of the eclip- 
tic, and the position of the winter 
solstice in the heavens. See further, 
Encyclojocedia Britannica, ii, 745, ninth 
edition. 

The whole matter of Hindu astrono- 
my is still involved in uncertainty. 
The more prevalent view is, that the 
knowledge of the Hindu was derived 
from foreign sources, either through 
Greek or Arabian channels. 

As we draw nearer to the home of 
Job it is important to call attention to 
the fact that the astronomical knowl- 
edge of the Greek was borrowed either 
from the Egyptian or the Chaldaean, 
the near neighbors of Job. (See Excur- 
sus IX, p. 284.) Tliales, 

" Wisest of the seven sages, 
That great astronomer," 

(thus Timon, cited by Laertius,) as we 
have before seen, early visited Egypt. 
Greek writers acknowledge that in this 
visit he gathered much astronomical 
and geometrical knowledge. Herodotus 



CHAPTER XLI. 



291 



declares that Thales predicted an eclipse 
of the sun, which, from astronomical 
considerations, Mr. Grote and others 
suppose to have taken place 610 B. C. 
Sir Henry Rawlinson (Herodotus, i, 168) 
is of the opinion that all the knowledge 
Thales had upon the subject of a solar 
eclipse was derived from the Chaldae- 
ans, and even the possession of any true 
scientific knowledge he regards as prob- 
lematical. Diogenes Laertius, however, 
(s. v., section vii,) attributes the knowl- 
edge Thales possessed to the Egyptians, 
and states that this knowledge indi- 
cated the shape of the earth to be that 
of a sphere, and the eclipse of the moon 
to arise from its falling into the shadow 
of the earth. Cicero (De Republica, i, 
14) also declares that the first model of a 
celestial globe was made by Thales. On 
the contrary, Sir G-. C. Lewis, in his work 
on the "Astronomy of the Ancients," 
denies that Thales was cognizant of 
the shape of the earth. Strabo (iii, 29) 
affirms that the length of the year, 
even, was unknown to the Greeks until 
Eudoxus and Plato went down to 
Egypt, where they are reputed to have 
lived thirteen years in the society of 
the priests. These priests, he says, 
"were distinguished for their knowl- 
edge of the heavenly bodies, but were 
mysterious and uncommunicative ; yet 
after a time were prevailed upon by 
courtesy to acquaint them with some 
of the principles of their science, but 
the barbarians concealed the greater 
part of them." 

Aristotle (B. C. 384-322) unquestion- 
ably taught the circular form of the 
earth, deducing it from the fact that 
"although the moon in its monthly 
phases has all diversities of outline, so 
as to be at one time straight, again 
gibbous or convex, and again concave, 
yet in its eclipses it has the defining 
or intersecting line (made by the 
shadow of the earth) invariably curved. 
So that, since the moon suffers eclipse 
by the interposition of the earth, it 
must be the periphery (of the earth's 
shadow) that is the cause, because the 
earth itself is spherical." He also still 
further argues that the earth is round, 
and of no very great magnitude, "since 
even in a small change of distance, 



either to the north or south, there is a 
manifest change in respect to the hori- 
zon, so that the stars which were over 
our heads undergo a change of posi- 
tion, and do not appear the same, as 
we travel either to the north or south. 
In this way some stars are seen in 
Egypt and in the neighbourhood of 
Cyprus which are not visible in the 
more northerly regions." — De Coelo, 
xiv, 8. 

It does not appear that at any rea- 
sonable period as yet assigned for the 
writing of the book of Job, any proper 
view of the earth's shape had been 
taken by either Chaldaean, Egyptian, or 
Greek. Even the enlightened Chal- 
dseans, Diodorus Siculus informs us, 
(lib. ii, sec. 31,) "have quite an opin- 
ion of their own about the shape of 
the earth. They imagine it to have 
the form of a boat turned upside down, 
and to be hollow underneath." " This 
opinion," says Lenormant, " remained 
to the last in the Chaldaean sacerdotal 
schools; their astronomers believed in 
it, and tried, according to Diodorus, to 
support it by scientific arguments. It 
is of very ancient origin, a remnant of 
the ideas of the purely Accadian period. 
. . . Let us imagine, then, a boat turned 
over ; not such a one as we are in the 
habit of seeing, but a round skiff, like 
tho;e which are still used under the 
name of kufa. on the shores of the lower 




Tigris and Euphrates, and of which 
there are many representations in the 
historical sculptures of the Assyrian 
palaces. The sides of this round skiff 
bend upward from the point of the 
greatest width, so that they are shaped 
like a hollow sphere deprived of two 
thirds of its height, and showing a 
circular opening at the point of division. 
Such was the form of the earth accord- 
ing to the authors of the Accadian 
magical formula and the Chaldaean 
astrologers of after years The in- 
terior concavity, opening from under- 



292 



JOB. 



neath, was the terrestrial abyss, ge, 
where the dead found a home." — Ghal- 
dcaan Magic, pp. 150, 151. 

The book of Job commits itself to 
no such trivialities as this. Its sub- 
lime, God-inspired conception, notwith- 
standing Job's proximity to the Chal- 
daeaus, lifted him above his contempo- 
raries, and saved him from the rock on 
which they split. In sublime language 
he, says of G-od, "He stretcheth out 
the north over the empty place, and 
hangeth the earth upon nothing." 
Chapter xxvi, 7. (See note, also, on 
xxxvii, 3 ; xxxviii, 6.) The Septuagint 
renders the passage literally into Greek, 
and that, too, about two centuries be- 
fore Ovid wrote, 

Pendebat in aere tellus 
Ponderibus librata suis. 

Met., i, 11. 
Earth, self-poised and self-balanced. 

Job also speaks of another constella- 
tion, (nahhash bariahh,) " the fleeing ser- 
pent," (Draco or Dragon,) see note on 
xxvi, 13 ; and Excursus VIII, p. 275. 
The stars forming this constellation 
have borne this name from very ancient 
cimes. The Arabs called it El hajje, 
"the serpent." Virgil thus speaks of 
it, 

Maximus hie liexu sinuoso eldbitur anguis 
Circum, perque duas in morem fluininis Arctos. 
Georg., i, 244. 

Which Dryden renders: — 

Around our pole the spiry Dragon glides, 
And, like a winding stream, the Bear divides. 

Cicero (Be Nat. Beorum, ii, 42) cites an 
extended description of this constella- 
tion from the poet Aratus, who wrote 
nearly three centuries before Christ. 
The association in the text, (xxvi, 13,) 
of the wounding of the fleeing serpent 
with the preceding clause, " by his 
breath [or spirit] the heavens are 
bright," is worthy of special note ; 
the making bright the heavens by the 
breath of God grandly suggests the 
wounding, by the divine hand, of the 
serpent, which is the scriptural as well 
as the Egyptian type of evil. In the 
mythologies of many nations the strug- 
gle with evil necessitates the interpo- 
sition of a divine agent, who crushes or 
wounds the typical serpent, as is seen in 



this very constellation, whose head is be- 
neath the foot of Hercules. (See M'Clin- 
tock & Strong's Cyclop., volume v, page 
164.) The Egyptian hieroglyph for "the 
snake giant Apop, the symbol of sin," 
(Wilkinson,) represents him in the act 
of flight, but again and again wounded. 
Brugsch gives five variants of this 
hieroglyph, in three of 
which the serpent is 



on 



pierced with arrows. 



Hieroglyph. Bemot. Worterbuch, i, p. 181. 
The word Apop or Apep (Apophis) 
signifies to " mount on high," (Bunsen.) 
with the idea, says Brugsch, of "run- 
ning with elevated head to ascend the 
heights." This hieroglyphic determi- 
native was " a very common designation 
of the serpent Apophis, enemy of the 
light and of the good; which, there- 
fore, arrays itself against the beaming 
deity of Ba, and seeks to hinder the 
good."— Brugsch, ibid., i, p. 180. This 
name, Apep, it will be perceived, strik- 
ingly embodies the solemn Hebrew 
tradition of Satanic ambition to rise, 
and his correspondingly ignominious 
fall. See Ancessi, ibid., pp. 233-241, 
and George Smith, Chaldaian Account, 
pp. 14, 87-100. The root of this word, 
Apep, Ap, will remind scholars of the 
Hebrew ^i^, ob, "soothsaying demon," 
(Gesenius;) the Sanscrit AM, "the ser- 
pent," to wit, the demon Vritra ; and the 
Greek ocptg, ophis, the name which Ara- 
tus (82) gives to the constellation of 
which Job speaks. 

It is of interest to note that the very 
constellations of which Job so grandly 
sings, Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, 
are also mentioned by Hesiod (Works 
and Bays, Bohn, pp. 105, 106) and by 
Homer, (Iliad, xviii, 486-488,) each 
of whom associates them with the Hy- 
ades, the former also adding Sirius. 
See chap, ix, 9; xxxviii, 31, 32. 

An interesting and important link 
between the two great ancient rivals 
in astronomical knowledge is the patri- 
arch Abraham, who, an exile from Chal- 
daea, resided in Egypt, in the sacred 
city of On, and, according to Eupole- 
mus, taught the Egyptians astronomy. 
(Eusebius, Prcvj). Evang., ix, 17.) The 
Oriental accounts unite in ascribing to 
Abraham a high degree of astronomical 



CHAPTER XLL 



293 



knowledge, as appears from Berosus, 
cited by Josephus, (Antiq., i, chap, vii.) 
for he says of Abraham that he was 
" righteous, and great, and skilful in 
the celestial science." — Antiquities, i, 
chap. vii. Josephus also remarks that 
" before Abraham came into Egypt they 
[the Egyptians] were unacquainted with, 
those parts of learning," [astronomy, 
etc.] (Ibid.) i, chap, viii.) As respects 
Abraham, the traditions of the Arabian 
tribes agree with Josephus. 

To the Egyptians are ascribed the 
observation and establishment of the 
Sothis periods. They early made lists 
of the rising of stars. The painting in 
the Ramesseum at Thebes presents a 
complete map of the Egyptian sky. In 
the tomb of Rameses IV. (so Brugsch 
informs us) the thirty-six Decan stars 
are given, together with their deities. 

The great discoveries which have 
recently been made concerning Chal- 
daean science confirm the view of 
Diodorus Siculus, that "the Chaldaeans 
are far above all other nations in their 
knowledge of the heavens, and they 
devote the greatest attention and labour 
to this science." Cicero, in his work 
On "Divination," (i, 41,) had previously 
noted that the Chaldaeans excel in their 
knowledge of the stars, and in the 
subtlety of their genius. Among oth- 
ers, Josephus (ibid.) also bears witness 
that "the science of astronomy came 
from the Chaldaeans into Egypt, and 
from thence to the Greeks also." The 
superiority of the Chaldaeans, even at 
a comparatively late period, is further 
evinced by the tact that Ptolemy, though 
he lived at Alexandria, cites thirteen 
Chaldaean observations, ranging from 
B.C. 721 to B.C. 229, while he does 
not deign to mention the Egyptians as 
astronomers. (Ideler, cited by G-rote, 
History of Greece, hi, 293.) We have 
not to seek long to find the secret of 
such lore. The wide Assyrian plains, 
unbroken by mountain range, 
Spread like a sea 
Beneath the concave of unclouded skies. 

(See further, "Wordsworth's Excursion, 
book iv.) The mouotony of the land- 
scape naturally led to the contempla- 
tion of the variegated heavens. The 
singular transparency of the atmos- 



phere brought out in surpassing brill- 
iancy the heavenly bodies, and seemed 
to draw the heavens nearer to man, so 
that i he stars wielded a fascinating 
power over the minds of men, as Job 
himself also had observed, (see note 
xxxi; 26,) and unceasingly lured the 
thoughtful to the study of the skies. 
Fragments of planispheres which still 
remain show that the Chaldaeans early 
formed maps of the heavens, and 
grouped the stars into constellations. 
The constellations which seemed to 
touch nearest upon the path of the sun 
they marked off, and eventually gath- 
ered together in the signs of the zodiac. 
(See Records of the Past, i, 165.)' At 
an early period they divided the year 
into twelve months of thirty days, and 
by intercalations of various kinds they 
brought it into harmony with the as- 
tronomical year of three hundred and 
sixty-five and a quarter days. The 
important discover) 7- , implying long- 
protracted observations, was also made 
early, that eclipses of the moon repeat 
themselves after a period of two hun- 
dred and twenty-three lunations. The 
records of them usually begin with the 
words "According to calculation," or, 
" Contrary to calculation, the moon 
was eclipsed." In connexion with 
which statement Sayce remarks, "As 
the same formulae are sometimes em- 
ployed for solar eclipses also, it would 
seem that the problem of calculating 
them by tracing the shadow as pro- 
jected on a sphere had already pre- 
sented itself. The problem, however, 
was not always successfully solved; 
and even as late as the seventh century 
B. C. we find the state astronomer of 
Assyria, Abil-Istar, repotting that al- 
though a watch had been kept on the 
28th, 29th, and 30th of Sivan, or May, 
for an expected eclipse of the sun, the 
eclipse did not take place after all." — 
Bab. Lit, 53. See also Records of the 
Past, i, 155, 156. 

A large proportion of the surviv- 
ing literature of this people was de- 
voted to treatises on astronomical sub- 
jects. The most famous of the libraries 
of Babylonia, that of Agane, founded 
by Sargon I., probably in the seven- 
teenth century B. C, contained a great 



294 



JOB. 



CHAPTER XL1I. 

THEN" Job answered the Lord, and 
said, 2 I know that thou a canst 



a Gen. 18. 14; Matt. 19. 26; Mark 10. 27; 14. 
Luke 18. 27. 



work on astronomy and astrology, en- 
titled "The Observations of Bel," in 
seventy two books, which Berosus 
translated into Greek. (The reader is 
referred to Bee. of the Past, i, 151-163, 
for a translation of some of these tab- 
lets.) Such attainments were made in 
this science that, as Sayce informs us, 
" The catalogue of the astronomical 
works in the library of Agane enjoins 
the reader to write clown the number 
of the book he needs, and the librarian 
will thereupon give him the tablet re- 
quired." These books, it seems, were 
many of them either translated for the 
library of Sargon from Accadian origi- 
nals, or based on old Accadian texts. 

On Chaldaean science, see also 
Duncker, History of Antiq., i, 264-286, 
and Trans, of Soc. of Bib. Archaeology, 
vol. hi. article by Sayce, "The Astron- 
omy, etc., of the Babylonians." 

CHAPTER XLIT. 

Job's Second and Last Reply, 

verses 2-6. 

In recognising the ahnightiness of God 
— his infinite power in its relations not 
only to the diversified types of evil, out to 
evil itself — Job declares God to be just 
and ivise, and in all things governed by 
the highest principles of right. At the 
contemplation of the inmost harmony in 
the divine Being between ahnightiness, 
justice, goodness, and wisdom, and by 
contrast his own rampant folly and wick- 
edness, he abhors himself, and repents in 
dust and ashes, 2-6. 

The reply links itself for the most 
part with chap, xl, 7-14, which con- 
tains the challenge of the Almighty re- 
specting the control and government of 
the world, in connexion with which 
the amplification in chaps, xl, 15-24 and 
chap, xli furnishes living criteria — ugly 
touchstones for the proudest human 
reason. " If even that which is appar- 
ently most contradictory, rightly per- 
ceived, is so glorious, his affliction is 
also no such monstrous injustice as he 



do every thing, and that l no thought 
can be withholden from thee. 3 b Who 
is he that hideth counsel without knowl- 



1 Or, no thought of thine can be hindei^ed. 
o Chap. 38. 2. 

thinks. On the contrary, it is a pro- 
foundly elaborated thought, (mezimma-h,) 
a well-digested counsel, ('hetsah,) of 
God." — TJelitzsch. 

2. Thought — niSTD, signifies med- 
itation, thinking, thence purpose or plan, 
very frequently in a bad sense. Comp. 
chap, xxi, 27 ; Psa. x, 2 ; xxi, 12 ; Prov. 
xiv, 17 ; xxiv, 8 ; Jer. xxiii, 20 ; xxx, 24. 
" Perhaps this ambiguous word is se- 
lected designedly, in order to express 
the thought, that, from the circum- 
scribed nature of Job's views, the 
plans of God appeared to him to be 
bad, while to the Allwise they contin- 
ued unhindered, and, as they originated 
from him, the Fountain of all good, they 
would at length be understood in the 
most favourable light. The Almighty 
can prosecute a plan which appears to 
the human understanding bad, (mezim- 
mah,) for it is in his power to trans- 
form the bad into good." — Umbreit. 
Withholden from thee — Literally, 
cut off from thee. Compare Gen. xi, 6, 
where the same word is rendered " re- 
strained." He whose wondrous plans 
have been wrought out in the forma- 
tion of the colossi of the brute creation 
is also the author of affliction, in whose 
varied features Job now sees marks of 
divine wisdom. The divine plan in 
sorrow impresses him as never before. 
He sees most vividly that his afflictions 
came forth from the all powerful, and 
therefore irresistible, will of God. The 
power of God is the postulate from 
which he reasons out to the entire be- 
ing of Deity. One diameter measures 
all the other diameters of the same 
circle : so the possession of one infinite 
attribute implies that all the other at- 
tributes of that Being must be infinite. 
Hence the stress Job lays on the in- 
finite power of God. 

3. Who is he. . .without knowl- 
edge — He repeats God's reproof, (chap- 
ter xxxviii, 2,) as if he would say, I am 
the man — the man of folly, arrogance, 
and sin, who measured himself with 



CHAPTER XLIL 



295 



edge? therefore have I uttered that 1 
understood not ; c things too wonderful 
for me, which I knew not. 4 Hear, 1 
beseech thee, and I will speak : d I will 
demand of thee, and declare thou unto 



c Psalm 40. 5 ; 131. 1 ; 139. 6. d Chap. 



the Most High, and blasphemously ar- 
raigned his ways and dispensations. 
Or else, such is his confusion when 
overwhelmed with shame and contri- 
tion, that he fails in the expression of 
coherent thought. He repeats with 
variation, (to wit, the change of Thrift, 

darkeneth, into D vJMD, hideth, and the 

omission olbemillin, " with words,") and 
perhaps automatically, the first words 
the voice of God uttered after the 
storm. The reader may be reminded 
of the confusion of Elihu at the com- 
mencement of his first address. See 
xxxii, 6 and p. 198. Schulteiis calls this 
reply of Job " graceful and weighty," 
(venusta ac gravis,) and regards it as an 
acknowledgment which honours God 
by the use of his own language in such 
a manner as to turn the divine reproof 
into a confession on Job's part of igno- 
rance, and even intentional perverse- 
ness, which seems to be implied in 
DvJJD, a word which he (Schultens) 

regards as more reverential. For a sim- 
ilar repetition, implying condemnation, 
see Num. xvi, 3, 7, in which Moses re- 
peats the words of the sons of Levi, 
" too much upon you." 

4. Hear, I beseech. . . declare thou 
unto me — »jyn1iT Literally, make me 

to know. This verse cites the words 
of God, (chaps, xxxviii, 3, xl, 7,) show- 
ing the profound impression they had 
made upon Job. Umbreit and Hitzig. 
on the other hand, against most com- 
mentators, represent Job as reproduc- 
ing the substance of his own foolish de- 
mands of God. " Job's want of under- 
standing." says the former, "was shown 
by this demand addressed to God. God 
alone could thus speak to Job, but not 
Job to him." Such an interpretation 
loses its force upon a proper view of 
the last word, hodlnheni, "make me to 
know;" or, "declare thou unto me." 
Job is not "anxious to put questions 



me. 5 I have heard of thee by the hear- 
ing of the ear ; but now mine eye seoth 
thee : 6 Wherefore I e abhor myself, and 
repent in dust and ashes. 

7 And it was so, that after the Lord 

38. 3 ; 40. 7. e Ezra 9. 6 ; chap. 40. 4. 

to Jehovah in order to penetrate deep- 
er into the knowledge of the divine 
power and wisdom: " (thus Delitzsch.) 
On the contrary, he would sit docile at 
the feet of the Almighty. True contri- 
tion is always attended with a teachable 
disposition. The proud Saul, arrested 
of God, is ready to go anywhere to be 
taught by God. (Acts ix, 6.) 

5. Now mine eye seeth thee — 
This vision of God is by no means to 
be taken literally, for there is no indi- 
cation that God disclosed himself oth- 
erwise than through the veil of the ter- 
ribly majestic cloud which apparently 
accompanied the storm out of which 
God spoke. (See note on xxxvii, 22 
and xxxviii, 1.) In the immediate 
presence of the glory of God, which, 
as it draws near, startled Elihu in 
vain strives to describe, Job's con- 
sciousness is quickened by the re- 
proofs of God, so that it beholds him 
in a new light. His whole being, too, 
is filled with light reflected from the 
newly-disclosed attributes of Deity. 
Before the eye of the soul God, the 
powerful, appears a wise, just, and lov- 
ing God ; the Almighty One (El) is 
revealed as Jehovah, unfolding to his 
stricken servant the heart of Deity. 
What he had before known of God had 
been vague, a mere hearing of the ear. 
Now he apprehends God through the 
stronger sense of spiritual sight— a 
sense which more than all others ex- 
presses the cognizant recipient soul — 
and at the sight is overwhelmed with 
confusion and unspeakable humiliation. 
" In seeing God Job sees himself; for 
the light that discovers God's glory and 
excellence discovers Job's meanness 
and vileness." — Dr. Clarke. 

6. I abhor myself— DK25*. As in 

ch. vii. 16, (which see,) the object of the 
verb abhor is not given. Hengstenberg 
conceives the object of his loathing 
('•despising." or "recantation," thus 
Zockler and Hitzig) to be his earlier 



296 



JOB. 



had spoken these words unto Joh, the 
Loed said to Eiiphaz the Temanite, My 



speeches. The Septuagint and "Vulgate, 
with more reason, supply myself] the 
former of which adds, by way of ex- 
planation, eTUKTjv, I am dissolving, 
(compare xix, 27,) such is the violence 
of his emotion. In dust and ashes — 
"In a sense that is absolutely proper 
the oook forms a irepiudoc, a period or 
circuit " — Vilmar. The trial found Job 
a spiritual monarch seated upon his 
throne of ashes — resigned, submissive 
to the will of God. " He sat down 
among the ashes.'' Chap, ii, 8. Now, 
as the purifying fires have burned their 
utmost, we find him brought around to 
his former ground of supremacy. The 
last recorded words — "ashes" — that 
fall from his lips are of the deepest 
significance — the same Hebrew word, 
epher, being employed as in chap, ii, 8. 
The allotment of the divine will he ac- 
cepts, though it be but dust and ashes. 
Hengstenberg interprets it: "I, who 
have sat until now in dust and ashes 
because of grief on account of my mis- 
fortunes, will continue so to do, but 
from another reason, because of grief 
on account of my sin." " Here," says 
the quaint Thomas Adams, "we may 
consider three degrees of mortification 
— the sickness, the death, and the bur- 
ial of sin. ' I abhor myself — there sin 
is sick and wounded; 'I repent' — there 
it is wounded and dead ; ' in dust and 
ashes ' — there it is dead and buried." 
— Sermon in loc, entitled, "The Sinner's 
Mourning Habit." See also University 
Sermons of W. H. Mill— "Job Peni- 
tent." 

Historical Conclusion— Epilogue. 

Verses 7-17. 

Jehovah's Address to Eltphaz and 

his Friends. Yerses 7, 8. 

7. The Lord (Jehovah) said to 
Eiiphaz the Temanite, etc. — While 
Job, penitent in dust and ashes, abhors 
himself, the three friends, we may 
imagine — like the Pharisee — contem- 
plate themselves admiringly aud Job's 
repentance approvingly. The voice of 
God startles them from their self-com- 
placency. That voice this time means 



wrath is kindled against thee, and against 
thy two friends : for ye have not spoken 

them. They are the great offenders. 
They have not spoken to God that which 
is right. They have compromised the 
truth by maintaining one-sided dogma 
(Jesuit-like) for the glory of God. The 
self-righteousness with which they still 
tower above Job serves only to draw 
down the burning wrath of God. The 
thing that is right — This is to be un- 
derstood as predicated not of the argu- 
ments and positions maintained by Job 
during the course of the debate, but of 
the twofold confession made by Job. 
(Chap, xl, 4, and xlii, 2-6.) Aben Ezra 
rightly deemed that the commendation 
''pertains solely to the confession 
which Job had made unto God and the 
others had not." The construction of 

"Dl (piel form) with i*)K, spoken concern- 
ing me, is precisely that which in the 
same verse is rendered spoken unto Job, 
and should have been translated simi- 
larly. Yet it is not to be overlooked 
that the best German exegetes agree 
in rendering the el, concerning: with ex- 
ceptions, however, such as Rosenmul- 
ler, who follows the Septuagint, Yul- 
gate, and Syriac in reading el, before, in 
the presence of, and Arnheim and Gese- 
nius, who translate elayi, unto me. Thus 
also Drusius, Fry, Coleman, Tayler Lew- 
is. The Hebrew, we think, makes this 
clear; for it is not what Job said of 

God, but "9K, unto or before (thus Nol- 

dius, p. 48) God, which he now com- 
mends. The word HJi^J, nekonah', ren- 
dered right, means also that which stands 
fast, (Hitzig.) which agrees with the 
root idea of koun, " to be firm,''' 1 " to stand 
upright." The same word is used of 
the day in Prov. iv, 18, and means, ac- 
cording to Gesenius, (Thes., p. 667,) the 
stable (part) of the day — "the meridian 
hour, when the sun seems to stand im- 
movable on the height of the heaven." 
True humility is the pedestal on which 
the maturest piety stands, and only 
can stand. 

Delitzsch, with many others, renders 
the word nekonah. what is correct, and 
tamely interprets it to "consist of his 



CHAPTER XLII. 



297 



of me the thing that is right, as my ser- 
vant Job hath. 8 Therefore take unto 
you now f seven bullocks and seven 
rams, and e go to my servant Job, and 



/Num. 23. 1. a Matt. 5. 24. h Gen. 20. 17 

James 5. 15, 16 ; 1 John 5. 16. 



having denied that affliction is always 
a punishment of sin, and his holding- 
fast the consciousness of his innocence, 
without suffering himself to be per- 
suaded of the opposite. That denial 
was correct, and this truthfulness was 
more precious to God than the untruth- 
fulness of the friends who were zealous 
for the honour of God." My servant 
Job — The honourable title he bore at 
the outset of his trial (chap. i. 8) is now 
restored, and four times repeated as he 
comes forth from the ashes of repent- 
ance. The title was also conferred 
upon Moses (Num. xii, 7) and upon the 
Messiah. Isa. xlii, 1; xlix. 6; lii, 13. 

8. A burnt offering — This differs 
from the burnt offering required by the 
Mosaio ritual. That it should be the 
same in kind and number with that of- 
fered by Balaam, a Gentile prophet, 
(Num. xxiii, i, 2.) and that there should 
be the twofold recognition of the sa- 
cred and complete number seven, points 
to an ante-Mosaical, if not patriarchal, 
period for the life of Job. The pro- 
found solemnity thus given to the 
sacrifice about to be offered, and the 
mortifying announcement that "the 
friends" should find forgiveness through 
the intercession and priesthood of the 
leprous Job, must have made them 
painfully alive to the folly of their con- 
duct. According to Grotius, in loc, the 
Hebrews think that the holocaust was 
the only form of sacrifice prevaUing to 
the time of Moses. See note, i, 5. My 
servant Job shall pray for you — 
The intercessory prayer which Job is 
directed to offer also suggests a pre- 
Mosaical economy as that under wdiich 
he lived. Gen. xx, 7, 17. The Mosaic 
law prescribes grandly significant rites 
and ceremonies, but without specific 
directions for prayer. See, however, 
Lev. xvi, 21 ; Deut. xxvi, 10-13. For 
him will I accept — Literally, only his 
face will Ilift up ; that is, regard favour- 
ably. The expression takes its rise 
from the favour granted by an Oriental 



offer up for yourselves a burnt offering ; 
and my servant Job shall h pray for you : 
for 2 him will I accept : lest I deal with 
you after your folly, in that ye have not 



2 Heb. his face, or, person, 1 Sam. 25. 35 ; 
Mat 1. 9. 



prince to a suppliant, w r ho is graciously 
bidden to rise from his prostration, and 
thus lift up his face. Compare chap. 
xiii, 8; xxxii, 21; Gen. xix, 21. This 
profound principle of the divine econ- 
omy — the power of the good to inter- 
cede for the sinful — had been already 
portrayed by Eliphaz with great beauty, 
(xxii, 29, 30,) and in patriarchal times 
was announced by God himself to the 
Egyptian king, Abimelech. Gen. xx. 7. 
Compare Gen. xviii, 32; xxvi, 24; Ex- 
od. xxxii, 7-14; Deut. ix, 7-29. In a 
world where the life of each is made 
to depend upon the kind offices and in- 
terposition of another, as is the case 
throughout the infantile period of hu- 
man existence, the patriarchal usage of 
intercession by one being for another 
is one which fully comports with the 
demands of our reason. The whole 
scheme of society is subsequently so 
arranged as to make the services of 
others indispensable to each — a princi- 
ple so universally true that no one at- 
tains to the higher bliss of life without 
the co-operation of others. His own 
richest temporal blessings God, for the 
most part, bestows through the medium 
of others ; and. by making human be- 
ings the channels for the outflow of 
divine beneficence, so arranges that 
they themselves shall be benefited and 
ennobled. ALL beneficence, human or 
divine, then, fails to fulfil its mission 
unless it brings with it manifold bless- 
ings — even as rays of light, whose end 
may be to give life and sustenance to 
the unpretending plant, scatter bless- 
ings along their entire path. The cul- 
minating hour of prayer, when Job 
gains the highest victory over himself 
by praying for the three friends, and 
more especially for the genteel and 
venerable leader Eliphaz, who most 
deeply maligned him, becomes the 
culmination of his distress and the 
turning point of his "captivity." See 
verse 10. Lest I deal with you af- 
ter your folly — Literally, thai I may 



298 



JOB. 



spoken of me the tiling which is right, 
like my servant Job. 9 So Eliphaz the 
Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and 
Zophar the Naamathite, went and did 
according as the Lord commanded them : 
the Lord also accepted 3 Job. 10 'And 



3 Hebrew, Hie face of Job.- 
12ti. 1. 



Psalm 14. 



not do with your folly, which Hitzig 
supposes to be spoken after the manner 
of men, and to refer to possible precip- 
itate action on the part of God. The 
views of Delitzsch and Dillmann, which 
Hitzig calls "wooden," are to be pre- 
ferred. They take folly by synecdoche 
for " the punishment of folly," in like 
manner as JlNlSn or fy, sin, is used for 

the penalty of sin — the former of whom 
reads, in accordance with our Author- 
ized Version, that I recompense not unto 
you your folly. 

The acceptance of Job takes place 
in the act of offering sacrifice in 

BEHALF OF HIS FRIENDS, Verses 9, 10a. 

9. Accepted Job — Literally, lifted 
up the face of Job, as in verse 8. Coc- 
ceius supposes that this acceptance was 
by some outward visible sign, perhaps 
in a mode similar to that in which Je- 
rome conjectures God showed his re- 
spect unto Abel and his offering, by 
sending down fire to consume the sac- 
rifices. 

1 0. The Lord turned the captivity 
— JTOBHIK 3B>. -A- 11 instance of paro- 
nomasia — an elegance, as the reader has 
seen, common in this book. (Note on 
chap, hi, 25.) The word rendered "cap- 
tivity " is kindred with the preceding 
word, and literally signifies a turning, 
(thus Ewald, Dillmanu, and Zockler,) so 
that the expression before us indicates 
a complete reversal of things : God 
overturns the misery of Job into joy, 
and replaces night with day. Compare 
Psa. xiv, 7; cxxvi, 1, 4. The long con- 
tinuance of Job's sufferings might well 
be called a captivity, if we accept the 
speculation of Chrysostom, Isidorus, 
Suidas, and others, that they lasted 
seven years, or adopt even the one year 
which Petavius assigns as their limit; 
but upon this subject the word of God 
is silent. Compare, however, chap, v, 19, 



the Lord turned the captivity of Job, 
when he prayed for his friends : also 
the Lord 4 gave Job k twice as much as 
he had before. 11 Then came there 
unto him ' all his brethren, and all his 
sisters, and all they that had been of his 



4 Heb. added all to Job unto the double. 
£Isa. 40. 2. ZSee chap. 19. 13. 



with vii, 3 — on the latter of which 
see note. When he prayed — In the 

very act of his praying for others (prep. 
2, in, before the verb) his own salva- 
tion came. The spectacle partakes of 
the morally sublime. The man of God, 
on whom still rests a burden of sorrow 
and disease unmeasured by human 
words, bends himself before his God, 
not in prayer for himself, but for those 
who had done him ill. As suddenly as 
in after times to Naaman, descends the 
grace of the Almighty: the night of 
tribulation turns and passes away ; the 
loathsome ulcers vanish, while (even as 
Elihu had wonderfully prophesied) "his 
flesh becomes fresher than a child's," 
(chap, xxxiii, 25,) and the work of de- 
liverance for soul and body is complete. 
Compare chap, xi, 15-17. The Talmud 
thence derives the proverb, " He who 
prays for his fellow men always finds 
acceptance for himself first of all." 

Restoration of Job to hts former 

DIGNITY AKD HONOUR, verses 10&, 11. 

Twice as much — As in Isa. xl, 2, 
the consolation of Jerusalem is double 
the punishment inflicted upon her for 
her sins, (thus Yitringa,) so now the 
reward of Job is double all his losses. 
The restraint of love only intensifies 
its power when once the barrier is re- 
moved. The greatness of the reward 
now bestowed is correlative to the af- 
fection which had been so long con- 
cealed. 

11. All his sisters — This is the first 
intimation given that Job had sisters ; 
and as, consequently, they do not ap- 
pear in the six classes Job enumerates 
of those who were estranged from him, 
(chap, xix, 13, 14.) we may conjecture, at 
least, that they did not join in the gen- 
eral ill treatment of Job. It is deeply 
significant that no mention is made of 
Job's wife after his return to prosperity. 



CHAPTER XLIT. 



299 



acquaintance before, and did eat bread tbe evil that the Lord had brought upon 
with him in his house: and they be- him: every man also gave him apiece of 
moaned him, and comforted him over all money, and every one'an earring of gold. 



The last time she appears is in a pain- 
ful allusion Job makes to her want of 
sympathy. Chap, xix, 17. All they 
that had been of his acquaintance 
— Literally, all his knoivers. Same term 
as in chap, xix, 13. They bemoaned 
him — The Hebrew word noudh (same 
as in chap, ii, 11 — see note) expresses 
oneness of feeling with the sufferer, 
whether it be of grief or joy, and cor- 
responds to our word sympathize. 
Friends who stood aloof from him as the 
accursed of God, (see note, chap, ii, 8,) 
gather around him as evidences are 
given of the removal of the divine ban. 
" Of Job's adversities the loss of friends 
was last ; of his prosperities the return 
of friends was first." — Kitto. A piece 
of money — The etymological signifi- 
cation of the word HD^P, kesitah, is 

probably a piece weighed out, from kasat, 
to divide, measure, or weigh, (Fiirst.) 
A similar word is the Arabic kistah, 
from the same root, signifying a pair 
of scales, a balance; notwithstanding 
which, in the ancient versions, kesitah 
was rendered lamb. This ancient read- 
ing is accounted for by some on the sup- 
position that the kesitah was stamped 
with the image of a lamb, in accord- 
ance witli an Egyptian and Assyrian 
custom of making weights in the form 
of bulls, lions, and other animals. (See 
note on chap, vi, 2.) The most ancient 
coins of the Phoenicians, also, have the 
impress of a sheep. The Latin word | 
for money, pecunia, finds its root in pe- 
cus, sheep or cattle. (Concerning the 
antiquity of coinage see Rawlinson, 
Herodotus, i. 563-568.) The word ap- 
pears, besides, in the Scriptures, only 
in Gen. xxxiii, 19, and Josh, xxiv, 32, 
in both of which reference is made to 
the purchase of a "parcel of ground" 
by Jacob for a hundred kesitahs. That, 
these kesitalis could not have been 
sheep is probable from Acts vii, 16, 
where we are told Jacob bought this 
piece of land for a "sum of money." 
By comparing Genesis xxxiii, 19, with 
Genesis xxiii. 16. Gesenius supposes the 
value of the kjsitah to have been about 



four shekels. Ir, is generally assumed to 
have been of silver. Hitzig, on account 
of its association with the earrings of 
gold, thinks it also was gold. As this 
word appears elsewhere in the scrip- 
tures only in connection with the patri- 
archs, its use here affords evidence of the 
remote origin of this book. Earring 
— DTJ, (same as in Gen. xxiv, 22. 47,) is 

thought by Schroeder, Rosenmuller, 
and Gesenius to have been a nose- 
ring, and seems to have been, accord- 
ing to Exod. xxxii, 3, an ornament for 
men as well as women. Madden (Jew- 
ish Coinage, p. 3,) suggests that these 
rings may have been employed as a 
medium of exchange. Among the an- 
cient Egyptians money consisted of 
rings of gold and silver, as represented 
on many of the monuments of Thebes. 
For a picture of these rings the reader 
is referred to page 60 ; also to Wilkin- 
son's Domestic Habits of the Egyptians, 
p. 92, for a like pictorial representation of 
scales, in which the weight bearing the 
impress of a sheep balances three rings. 
It is by no means improbable that three 
rings were of the value of one kesitah. 
Rings of gold are still used as a medium 
of exchange in Sennaar and neighbour- 
ing countries. It is the custom in Orien- 
tal countries, eveu to Ihe present day, 
for those who go into the presence 
of the great to offer gifts, as a tacit 
recognition of their own inferiority. 
To such an extent is this s) r stem of 
symbolic gifts carried, that, according 
to Sir John Chardin, " It is the custom 
when one invites a superior, to make 
him a present after the repast, as it 
were in acknowledgment of his trouble. 
Frequently it is done before the repast 
— it being no augmentation of honour to 
come to the house of one who is an in- 
ferior. But they make no presents to 
equals or those that are below them- 
selves." See Harmer's Observations, 
(Adam Clarke's edition,) ii, 296-326 ; 
also Wixer, Rwb. i, 411, 412. Among 
the Hebrews, in some cases, presents 
were brought to monarchs upon their 
recovery from some great calamity, 



300 



JOB. 



12 So the Lokd blessed m the lat- 
ter end of Job more than his begin- 
ning : for he had " fourteen thousand 
sheep, and six thousand camels, and a 
thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand 
she asses. 13 °He had also seven sons 

m Chap. 8. 7 ; James 5. 11. 

and served both as tokens of affection 
and of homage. After the restoration 
of King Hezekiah from his grievous 
malady, many brought gifts unto the 
Lord and presents to Hezekiah, "so 
that he was magnified in the sight of 
all nations from henceforth." 2 Chron. 
xxxii, 23. Compare Psa. lxxvi, 11, and 
Isa. xxxix, 1. 

The End of Job more Blessed than 
the Beginning. Verses 12-17. 

12. So the Lord blessed the lat- 
ter end of Job — The exact doubling of 
Job's flocks and herds comes within 
the domain of the miraculous ; its ob- 
ject, to show to all ages that the return 
of Job to prosperity was not a mere 
stroke of fortune, but the unmistakable 
result of divine interposition. "The 
visible evidence of G-od's mercy in Job's 
ci.se . . . was a pledge of God's unseen 
love to all who endure ; and it was 
vouchsafed to Job as such. Besides, 
Satan had so contrived Job's afflictions 
by an extraordinary coincidence of 
events, (which God permitted him to 
execute, chaps, i and ii,) that it might 
seem to Job's friends and to the world 
that Job was stricken of God as a sin- 
ner, and that he might be accused (as 
lie was by his friends) as guilty in 
God's sight." — Wordsworth. Sheep 
. . . camels . . . oxen . . . and she asses 
— See note on chap, i, 3. 

13. He had also seven sons and 
three daughters — The number of his 
children was not doubled ; for the dead 
were with God. The omission is sig- 
nificant, and can only be accounted 
for by the belief in a reunion after 
deaih. (See p. 72, 73.) " God did not 
double his children to Job, in order that 
he might not despair of seeing again 
the children he had lost ; and in order 
that he might know that, though they 
were taken from him, they were still 
alive ; and that we also might know 
that Job, who had buried ten children, 



and three daughters. 14 And he called 
the name of the first, Jemima; and 
the name of the second, Kezia; and 
the name of the third, Keren-happuch. 
15 And in all the land were no women 
found so fair as the daughters of Job : 



n See chap. 1. 3. o Chap. 1. 2. 



and was himself buried by ten others, 
passed at death, as it were, from one 
home to another, and all of them will 
stand with him together at the great 
day." — Chrysostom. 

14. And he called the name — The 
grace and beauty of person of the three 
daughters are reflected in the descrip- 
tive names, given, not by the parent 
necessarily, but more probably by ad- 
miring friends. They were like the 
three graces of classic times. The sub- 
ject of the word called is not defined. 
Sir Thomas Roe, the traveller, says of 
the Persians, " They call their women 
by the names of spices or odours, or of 
pearls or precious stones, or else by 
other names of pretty or pleasing sig- 
nification." Jemima — (Sept., Day) was 
in former times supposed to be an Ara- 
maic word, and to signify pure as day- 
light; but it is now regarded as kin- 
dred to the Arabic Jemaimat, which 
means a dove, and was given (so De- 
litzsch thinks) as a name u because of 
her dove's eyes." Compare Cant, ii, 14; 
v, 2 ; vi, 9. Kezia — (Sept., Casia) Cas- 
sia, or, fine as the fragrance of cassia, 
" as if woven out of the odor of cinna- 
mon." — Delitzsch. Comp. Psa. xlv, 8; 
Cant, i, 3. This bark is something like 
cinnamon, but not so aromatic. Its 
Hebrew name, ketsiah, expresses the fact 
that it is stripped from the trees. Ex- 
cessive fondness for perfumes is char- 
acteristic of the people of the East unto 
the present day. "The people of the 
Hedjaz, especially the ladies," says 
Burckhardt, " steep rose-buds in water, 
which they afterward use for their ab- 
lutions." — Arabia, i, 68. Keren-hap- 
puch — (Septuagint, Amalthaea's horn,) 
is literally a horn of paint — boxes of 
pigment in those days being, as is sup- 
posed, sometimes made of horn, or in 
the shape of a horn. Oriental ladies from 
very ancient times have painted their 
eyes, in order to produce an apparent 
enlargement of the eye, and to promote 



CHAPTER XLIL 



301 



and their father gave them inherit- ance among their brethren. 16 After 



its brilliancy. The accompanying en- 
graving is copied from the sarcophagus 
of Qimenepthah, and is supposed to rep- 




GODDE8S, WITH HER EYES PAINTED. 

resent an Egyptian goddess whose eye- 
brows and eyelids have been painted 
with a black dye. To the bright and 
languishing expression thus produced 
the writer of the Proverbs (vi, 25) is 
supposed to refer when he says, "Nei- 
ther let her [the wanton] take thee with 
her eyelids." Horns containing pigment 
have been found in Egyptian sarcoph- 
agi, with silver, ivory, and wooden 
needles, and minute brushes for apply- 
ing the cosmetic to the eye. The As- 
syrian monuments also give evidence 
of the prevalence of the same custom. 
The art. in later times, became meretri- 
cious, as may be seen in 2 Kings ix, 30, 
(margin;) Jer. iv, 30; Ezek. xxiii, 40. 
The Prophet Isaiah (liv, 11) makes the 
colouring matter (stibium, Heb. pouk,) 
used in painting the eye the ground of 
an exquisite figure — the very cement 
of the stones which compose the new 
Jerusalem, he prophesies, shall be stib- 
ium, ihus intimating that, as with the 
human eye artificially decorated, the 
beauty of these stones shall stand forth 
in greater splendour because of the 
dark background in which they also are 
set. The name of Keren-happuch, says 
Hengstenberg, is an irony upon the 
use of cosmetics. See further in Rus- 
sell's History of Aleppo, i, pp. Ill, 366. 



15. Inheritance among their 
brethren — According to Mosaic usage 
daughters inherited only when there 
were no sons in the family. The re- 
monstrance of the five daughters of 
Zelophehad against the alienation of 
their father's estate, gave rise to leg- 
islation through which property de- 
scended to daughters. Numbers xxvii, 
1-12. In case there were several sons 
the whole inheritance was divided 
equally among the sons, with the ex- 
ception of the oldest, who received 
twice as much as either of his brothers. 
Deut. xxi, 17. " Daughters, in case 
they were unmarried, were considered 
as making a part of the estate, and were 
sold by their brothers into matrimony." 
— Jahn, Biblical Archceology, sec. 168. 
The Athenian and the early Roman 
laws resembled the Mosaic in excluding 
females from inheritance when there 
were brothers ; but in the case of the 
Greek a moral obligation devolved upon 
the brother to assign his sister a for- 
tune corresponding to her rank. (See 
authorities cited in Smith's Dictionary 
of Greek and Roman Antiquities, s. v., 
Heres, p. 594. Eng. Edit.) 

The indications are, that in patriar- 
chal times daughters usually obtained a 
share in the paternal inheritance. This 
seems to be implied in the statement 
of Leah and Rachel, that there was 
for them no portion nor inheritance 
in their father's house. (G-en. xxxi, 14.) 
Job, with princely magnanimity, in- 
cludes his daughters among the sharers 
of the inheritance, not in a manner, 
as Kitto says, "showing that this 
power was rarely exercised," but 
rather in keeping with ancient Arabian 
customs, which are perpetuated to the 
present day by Mohammedans. — Sale's 
Prelim. Disc, sec. vi, and the Koran, 
Sura iv. An inscription of Esarhaddon, 
found at Kuyunjik, gives the names 
of eight Arabian sovereigns whom he 
put to death. Among them are two 
queens, Tapaa and Bailu. " This was a 
frequent custom," says H. F. Talbot, 
speaking of the sovereignty of queens 
in the land of Arabia, (Records of 
the Past, vol. iii, page 107,) "accord- 



302 



JOB. 



this p lived Job a hundred and forty 
years, and saw his sons, and his sons' 



V Chap. 5. 26 ; Prov. 3. 16. 



ing to the cuneiform inscriptions, but 
as far as I have observed, it was con- 
fined to that country." Compare the 
account of the queen of Sheba, 1 Kings 
x, 1-13. In the French K ational Library 
is an ovoid bowlder of black basalt, 
known by the name Caillou Michaux, 
on which is an Assyrian inscription 
containing the law concerning landed 
property as a dowry for a woman on 
her marriage, and giving the whole 
measurement of the land to which the 
stone served as a boundary. — Lenor- 
mant, Chaldcean Magic, 68. For a more 
detailed description, see Records of the 
Past, ix, 92-95. An old Accadian in-, 
cantation (see note, i, 17) says of the 
seven evil spirits, "Female they are 
not, male they are not; " on which Birch 
remarks, this order is in accordance 
with the position held by the woman in 
Accad; in the Accadian Table of Laws 
(see Records of the Past, iii, 23) the de- 
nial of the father by the son is punished 
very leniently in comparison with the 
denial of the mother. (Compare Rec- 
ords of the Past, ix, 148.) To account for 
the distinction made by Job between the 
sons and daughters, by which the names 
of the latter only are mentioned, Forster, 
(Geog. of Arabia, ii, 66,) suggests "that 
the daughters of Job should not only 
become the mothers of nations, but that 
they should call the lands after their 
own names." More probable than his 
speculations as to the other daughters, 
is the one that the name of Jemima is 
perpetuated in Jemima or Jemama, the 
name of the central province of the 
Arabian peninsula. " An Arab tradi- 
tion, of immemorial standing," says 
Forster, " has preserved and handed 
down the fact that the province of Je- 
mama received its name from Queen 
Jemama, the first sovereign of the land, 
who could be no other than Jemima, 
the daughter of Job." Consult art. " In- 
heritance " in Fairbairn, Bib. Die. ; 
Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. lxxviii 5 
Winer, Rwb., art. " Erbschaft ;" Maine, 
Anc. Laws, 144-154; Spanheim, Hist. 
Jobi, cap. xv, sec. xviii. 



sons, even four generations. 17 So 
Job died, being old and q full of days. 



q Gen. 25. 8 ; Deut. 6. 2 ; Psa. 91. 16 ; Prov. 3. 16. 



16. After this lived Job a hun- 
dred and forty years — It does not 
appear from, the Scriptures what was 
the age of Job at the time of his calam- 
ities. According to the Septuagint, his 
entire life was 240 years, {Codex Alex., 
248 years,) from which deducting the 
Hebrew statement as above, there re- 
main 100 years, (Septuagint 70) — a full, 
mature age, rich in experience and ripe 
in moral strength, with which to meet 
the onset of evil — an age, also, not far 
from that of Abraham when he was 
more directly tried of G-od. The spec- 
ulation which is sometimes ventured 
upon, that the years of Job were also 
doubled, would make his entire age 210 
years, if calculated on the basis of the 
Septuagint, which distinctly states that 
he was 70 when subjected to trial. His 
longevity then was truly patriarchal, as 
will appear from the following table : — 

Peleg lived 239 years 

Ren " 239 " 

Serug " 230 " 

Nahor " 248 " 

Terah " 205 " 

Abraham 175 " 

Job say 210 " 

Isaac " 180 " 

Jacob " 147 " 

Joseph " 110 " 

Moses " 120 " 

Joshua " 110 " 
" Supposing, then, the age of Job to 
have been somewhat unusual and ex- 
traordinary, it would fall in with the 
period somewhere in the line between 
Terah and Jacob ; and, if so, he was 
probably cotemporary with the most 
distinguished of the patriarchs." — 
Barnes. 

17. Job died, being old and full 
of days — The Septuagint adds : " And 
it is written that he will rise again 
with those whom the Lord raises up." 
Also, " This man is described in [Gr. in- 
terpreted out of~\ the Syriac book as liv- 
ing in the land of Ausis, on the borders 
of Idumaea and Arabia; and his name 
before was Jobab ; and, having taken 
an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose 



CHAPTER XLTI. 



303 



name was Ennon. And he himself 
was the son of his father Zare, one of 
the sons of Esau, and of his mother 
Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth 
from Abraham. And these were the 
kings who reigned in Edom, which 
country he also ruled over : first, Balac, 
the son of Beor, and the name of his 
city was Dennaba: but after Balac, 
Jobab, who is called Job : and after 
him Asom, who was governor out of 
the country of Thaeman ; and after him 
Adad, the son of Barad, who destroyed 
Madiam in the plain of Moab, and the 
name of his city was Gethaim. And 
his friends who came to him were Eli- 
phaz. of the children of Esau, king of 
the Thavmanites; Baldad, sovereign of 
the Sauchaeans ; Sophar, king of the 
Mimeans." For Mohammedan views, 
see Koran. Sura xxi and xxxviii. Old 
and full of days — The formula is pa- 



triarchal, for the same Hebrew expres- 
sion is used of the death of Isaac. Gen. 
xxxv, 29. Compare Gen. xxv, 8. The 
word full, yn'K>, signifies also 



The entire good which life can give. Job 
lived long enough to fully reap. Length 
of life, as a temporal blessing, is not so 
essential for us who enjoy the un- 
dimmed prospect of immortality. The 
man of God no longer counts upon years 
as a reward of virtue, nor upon the so- 
called enjoyment of life as the true frui- 
tion of well-doing. The ministration of 
sorrow, now unclouded, is recognised 
as a kind and wise agent of the Most 
High. Faith localizes the true har- 
vest field in the life beyond. If life 
be for us but a handbreadth, it is long 
enough to answer its divine end — that 
of a grav, ever-dissolving, short-lived 
dawn — to usher in an immortal day. 



SCIENCE AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOOK 
OF JOB. 



ASTRONOMY. 



Arcturus, ix, 9 ; xxxviii, 32. 

Aurora. See Dayspring. 

Chambers of the south, ix, 9. 

Dayspring, xxxviii, 12-14. 

Dragon, the, constellation of, iii, 8 ; xxvi, 13 ; 

Excursus x, p. 292. 
Earth, ends of the, xxxvii, 3 ; xxxviii, 13. 
the, self-suspended, xxvi, 7; Excur- 
sus x, p. 292. 
the, shape of, xxvi, 7 ; xxxvii, 3 ; Ex- 
cursus x, p. 291. 
Eclipses, ancient knowledge of, iii, 8 ; Ex- 
cursus x, p. 291. 
Heavens, the, destruction of. xiv, 12. 
Mazzaroth. xxxviii, 32. 
Mezarim, xxxvii, 9. 



Moon, xxv, 5 ; xxxi, 26. 

Ocean, creation of, xxxviii, 9, 10. 
" stability of, xxxviii, 11. 

Orion, ix, 9 ; xxxviii, 31. 

Pleiades, ix, 9 ; xxxviii, 31. 

Points, cardinal, xxiii, 8, 9. 

Sheol, place of, xxvi, 5 ; xxxviii, 17 ; Ex- 
cursus iii, p. 72. 

Sky, strength of, xxxvii, 18. 

Space, (tohu,) xxvi, 7. 

Stars, chaps, iii, 9; ix, 7; xxii, 12; xxv, 5; 
xxxviii, 7. 

Sun, viii, 16 ; ix, 7 ; xxx, 28 ; xxxi, 26. 

Universe, extent of, xxvi, 14. 

Zodiac, the, the signs of, xxxviii, 32; Ex- 
cursus x, p. 293. 



BOTANY. 



Alkali, ix, 30. 

Barley, xxxi, 40. 

Cassia, xlii, 14. 

Cedar, xl, 17. 

Cockle, xxxi, 40. 

Corn, v, 26; xxiv, 6; xxxix, 4. 

Flae, viii, 11. 

Grape, xv. 33. 

Grass, v, 25; vi, 5 ; xl, 15. 

Juniper, xxx, 4. 

Mallow, xxx, 4. 

Nettle, _xx, 7. 



Olive, xv, 33. 

Palm tree, xiv, 7. 

Papvrus, viii, 11 ; ix, 26 ; xix, 2 

Reed, xl, 21. 

Rush. See Papyrus. 

Thistle, xxxi, 40. 

Thorn, v, 5 ; xli, 2. 

Trees, lotus, xl, 21, 22. 

Trees, shady. See Lotus trees. 

Tine, xv, 33. 

Wheat, xxxi, 40. 

Willows, xl, 22. 



304 



JOB. 



ETEOROLOGY, 



Clouds, balancing of, xxxvii, 16. 

bright, xxx vii, 11, 21. 

freighted with rain, xxvi, 8. 

guidance of, xxxvii, 12. 

height of, xx, 6 ; xxxv, 5. 

mantle of, xxxviii, 9. 

murky, iii, 5 ; xxii, 13, 14 ; xxxvii, 11. 

number of, xxxviii, 37. 

spreadings of, xxxvi, 29. 
Cyclone, i, 19. 

Dew, xxix, 19 ; xxxviii, 28. 
Earthquake, ix, 5, 6 ; xxvi, 11. 
Flood, the, xxii, 16-18. 
Frost and its effects, xxxvii, 10 ; xxxviii, 29. 
God, fire of, i, 16 ; xx, 26. 
Hail, xxxviii, 22. 
Ice, vi, 16 ; xxxviii, 29, 30. 

formation of, xxxvii, 10; xxxviii, 30. 
Light, its dwelling-place, xxxviii, 19. 



Lightning, xxviii, 26; xxxvii, 3; xxxviii, 25. 

Ocean, stability of, xxxviii, 11. 

Rain, v, 10 ; xxviii, 26 ; xxix, 23 ; xxxvi, 27 ; 

xxxvii, 6 ; xxxviii, 28, 37. 
Simoon, iv, 9. 
Sirocco, xxxvii, 17. 
Snow, vi, 16; ix, 30; xxiv, 19; xxxvii, 6; 

xxxviii, 22. 
formation of, xxxviii, 22. 
Storm, xxi, 18; xxvii, 21. 
Thunder, xxvi, 14; xxviii, 26; xxxvi, 29; 

xxxvii, 1-5 : xxxviii, 25. 
Vapour clouds, xxxvi, 27. 
Waters, weight of, xxviii, 25 ; xxxviii, 11. 
Whirlwind, i, 19 ; xxxvii, 9 ; xxxviii, 1. 
Wind, xxi, 18 ; xxx, 15, 22 ; xxxvii, 21. 
East, xv, 2 ; xxvii, 21 ; xxxviii, 24. 
South, xxxvii, 9, 17. 
Winds, weight for, xxviii, 25. 



MINERALOGY. 



Brass, (i. e., Copper,) vi, 12; xxviii, 2; xl, 

18 ; xli, 27. 
Brimstone, xviii, 15. 
Copper, tempered, xx, 24. 
Crystal, xxviii, 17. 
Gold, iii, 15 ; xxii, 24 ; xxiii, 10 ; xxviii, 1, 6, 

17 ; xxxi, 24 ; xxxvi, 19 ; xlii, 11. 



Iron, xix, 24; xx, 24; xxviii, 2; xl, 18; 

xli, 27. 
Lead, xix, 24. 
Ophir, gold of, xxii, 24. 
Rock, (i. e., flint,) xxviii, 9. 
Silver, iii, 15 ; xxii, 25 ; xxvii, 16, 17 ; xxviii, 1. 
Steel, (£. e., Brass or Copper,) xx, 24. 



PRECIOUS STONES. 



Coral, xxviii, 18. 
Onyx, xxviii, 16. 
Pearl, xxviii, 18. 



Ruby, xxviii, 18. 
Sapphire, xxviii, 6 
Topaz, xxviii, 19. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Asp, xx, 14, 16. 
Ass, xxiv, 3. 

she, i, 3,14; xlii, 12. 

wild, vi, 5; xi, 12; xxiv, 5; xxxix, 5-8. 
Behemoth. See Hippopotamus. 
Bull, xxi, 10. 

wild, xxxix, 10. 
Bullock, xlii, 8. 
Camel, i, 3, 17 ; xlii, 12. 
Cow. xxi, 10. 
Crocodile, iv. 8; xli. 
Dog, shepherd's, xxx, 1. 
Dragon. See Jackal. 
Eagle, ix, 26 ; xxxix, 27-30. 
Goat, wild, xxxix, 1. 
Grasshopper. See Locust. 
Hawk, xxxix, 26. 
Hind, xxxix, 1. 
Hippopotamus, xl, 15-24. 
Horse, xxxix, 18-25. 
Jackal, xxx, 29. 
Leviathan. See Crocodile. 
Lion, iv, 10; x, 16; xxviii, 8; xxxviii, 39. 



Lion, whelps of, iv, 11; xxviii, 8. 
Locust, xxxix, 20. 
Moth, iv, 19; xxvii, 18. 
Ostrich, xxxix, 13-16; xxx, 29. 
Owl, xxx, 29. 
Ox, vi, 5 ; xxiv, 3 ; xl, 15. 
Oxen, draught, i, 3, 14; xlii, 12. 
Peacock. See Ostrich. 
Phoenix, xxix, 18. 
Rahab, ix, 13 ; xxvi, 12. 
Ram, xlii, 8. 
Raven, xxxviii, 41. 
Reem. See Wild bull. 
Sheep, i, 3, 16 ; xxxi, 20; xlii, 12. 
Spider, viii, 14. 
Stork, xxxix, 13. 
Tannin, vii, 12. 
Unicorn. See Wild bull. 
Viper, xx, 16. 
Vulture, xxviii, 7. 
Whale. See Tannin. 
Worm, vii, 5 ; xvii, 14 ; xix, 26 
xxiv, 20 ; xxv, 6. 



xxi, 26; 



SYNOPSIS. 



305 



ARTS AND SOCIAL USAGES IN JOB'S DAY 



ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC USE. 



Alkali, ix, 30. 

Balance, vi, 2 ; xxxi, 6. 

Bed, vii, 13; xvii, 13: xxxiii, 15. 

Bottle, water, xxxviii, 37. 

Candle, xviii, 6; xxi, 17; xxix, 3. 

Clay, iv, 19; xiii, 12; xxxviii, 14. 

Clothing, xxii, 6 ; xxiv, 7 ; xxxi, 19. 

Coat, (tunic,) xxx, 18. 

Couch, vii, 13. 

Crown, xxxi, 36. 

Diadem, xxix, 14. 

Garment, xiii, 28 ; xxx, 18 ; xxxviii, 9 ; xli, 13. 

Gold, earring of, xiii, 11. 

House, i, 13; xx, 19; xxi, 9; xxx, 23, et seq. 

fire, xviii, 5. 

fuel, xx, 7. 

light, xviii, 5, 6. 
Instruments, musical, harp, (lyre,) xxi, 12. 

organ, (pipe,) xxi, 12. 

timbrel, (drum,) xxi, 12. 



Jewels, (gold,) xxviii, 17. 

Kesitah, xiii, 11. 

Lamp, xii, 5. 

Mantle, i, 20. 

Mill, hand, xxxi, 10. 

Mirror, xxxvii, 18. 

Money, xiii, 11. 

Ointment, xli, 31. 

Perfumery, xli, 31. 

Robe, xxix, 14. 

Seals, xxxviii, 14. 

Shuttle, weaver's, vii, 6. 

Signet clay, xxxviii, 14. 

Table, xxxvi, 16. 

Tent, v, 24 ; xviii, 6 ; xix, 12 ; xx, 26 ; xxix, 4, 

et seq. 
Tokens, (tessera,) xxi, 29. 
Turban. See Diadem. 
Winepress, i, 13; xxiv, 11. 
Wine skin, xxxii, 19. 



ARTICLES OF DIET. 



Bread, xv, 23; xxii, 7; xxvii, 14; xxviii, 5; Meat, (or, food,) vi, 7; xx, 14; xxxiii, 

xxxiii, 20 ; xiii, 11. xxxvi, 31 ; xxxviii, 41. 

Butter, xx, 17 ; xxix, 6. 
Cheese, x, 10. 
Egg, vi, 6. 
Grape, xv, 33. 
Honey, xx, 17. 



Milk, x, 10; xxi, 

Oil, xxiv, 11 ; xxix, 6. 

Olive, xv, 33. 

Salt, vi, 6. 

Wine, i, 13, 18 ; xxxii, 19. 



MILITARY OPERATIONS AND APPLIANCES. 



Archer, xvi, 13. 
Army, xxv, 3 ; xxix, 25. 
Armed men, xxxix, 21. 
Arrow, xli, 28. 

poisoned, vi, 4. 
Battle, xv, 24 ; xxxix, 25 ; xli, 8. 
Bow, xxix, 20. 

Bow of steel, or cross-bow, xx, 24. 
Buckler, xv, 26. 
Bulwarks, xiii, 12. 
Captains, xxxix, 25. 
Dart, xli, 26, 29. 
Habergeon, xli, 26. 
Iron weapon, xx, 24. 



Mounds or banks, xix, 12. 
Net, xix, 6. 
Quiver, xxxix, 23. 
Shield, xv, 26; xxxix, 23. 
Siege, xix, 12. 
Slirig-stones, xli, 28. 
Spear, xxxix, 23 ; xli, 26, 29. 
Sword, v, 15, 20; xv, 22; xix, 29; xx, 25; xxvii, 
14; xxxiii, 18 ; xxxvi, 12; xl, 19 ; xli, °" 



Troops, xix, 12. 



Trumpets, xxxix, 24, 25. 
War horse, xxxix, 19-25. 
Wall, breaching of a, xvi, 14. 
Whip, the, v, 21. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Abaddon, xxvi, 6; xxviii, 22; Excursus iii, 

p. 74. 
Abraham and Egypt. Excursus x. pp. 292,293. 
Aceads, the. (Ancient Chaldaeans.) the liter- 
ature of, i, 17 : Excursus ix, pp. 283, 288 ; 

Excursus x, pp. 291, 294. 
Apep, an Esrvptian symbol of evil, Excursus 

x, p. m. 
Astronomy and the Book of Job, Excursus 

x, pp. 290-294. 
Egyptian and Chaldean knowledge of, 
Excursus x, pp. 290-294. 
Birthdays, celebration of. i, 4. 
Books, making of ancient, xix, 23; Excursus 

x, pp. 293, 294. 
Brutes, worship of, in Egypt, Excursus ix, 

p. 286. 

Vol. V.— 21 



Burglary, mode of, xxiv, 16. 
Caravans, vi, 19 ; xxi, 29. 
Chaldaea, its relations to Edom, (or Uz,) 
i, 17 ; Excursus iv, 91, 92 ; Excursus ix, 
281 284, 288. 
Clothing, pawning of, xxii, 6 ; xxiv, 9. 
Contracts, ratifying of, xvii, 3. 
Cornerstone, laying of, xxxviii, 6, 7. 
Cosmetics, use of, xiii, 14. 
Dancing, xv, 16; xxi, 11,12. 
Daysman, (umpire.) ix, 33; Excursus iv, p. 90. 
Dead, Book of the, the Egyptian, iii, 14 ; vii, 
10; xix, 23; Excursus viii, p. 278; Ex- 
cursus ix, p. 285. 
burial of the, iii, 14, 15; xvii, 14; xxi, 

32, 33. 
the, their want of knowledge, xiv, 21. 
O. T. 



306 



JOB. 



Death, gates of, xxxviii, 17. 
shadow of, ill, 5. 

Demonology, Chaldsean, Excursus ix, pp. 
289, 290. 

Depravity, heathen view of, xi, 12 ; xv, 16 ; 
xxv, 4. 

Divining, the art of, xxxviii, 36. 

Doors, pivot, xxxviii, 17. 

Drunkenness, i, 13, 18 ; xii, 25. 

Edom, home of Joh, i, i, ; Excursus ix, pp. 
281, 282. 

Egypt, Joh's acquaintance with, iii, 14 ; Ex- 
cursus ix, p. 284. 

Elephantiasis. See Leprosy. 

Embalming, the art of, allusion to, xl, 13. 

Farming, i, 14, 15 ; xxiv, 6 ; xxxix, 9-12. 

Fatherless, the, care for, vi, 27; xxii, 9; 
xxiv, 3 ; Xxix, 12 ; xxxi, 17. 

Fraternities, business, xli, 6. 
of robbers, xii, 6. 

Gifts, the offering of, xlii, 11. 

Glass, manufacture of, xxviii, 17. 

God, sons of, i, 6 ; xxxviii, 7. 

Head, shaving of the, i, 20. 

Hireling, i, 15 ; vii, 2. 

Horites7the, aborigines of Edom, treatment 
of, xxiv, 2-8 ; xxx, 6-8. 

Hospitality, fires of, xviii, 5. 

Houses, clay, dwelling in, iv, 19; xxiv, 16. 

Hunting, xviii, 8-10 ; xxxix, 9 ; xl, 24 ; xli, 
1, 7. 

Idolatry, xii, 6; xxxi, 26, 27; xxxvi, 14; Ex- 
cursus viii, pp. 278, 279 ; Excursus ix, 
pp. 286-288. 

Idumaea. See Edom. - 

Immortality, Egyptian belief in, iii, 14. 

Incantations, iii, 8 ; Excursus ix, p. 289. 

Infanticide, iii, 12. 

Inheritance, laws of, xlii, 15. 

Inscriptions, rock, xix, 24. 
cuneiform, p. 249. 

hieroglyphic, xl, 19 ; Excursus viii, p. 
276 ; Excursus ix, p. 285. 

Instinct, xii, 7 ; xxviii, 7 ; xxxix, 26. 

Interpreter, the function of, xvi, 20 ; xxxiii, 
23. Excursus vii, 207. 

Jehovah, the word, i, 21. 

Kings, iii, 14 ; xii, 18 ; xxix, 25 ; xxxiv, 18 ; 
xxxvi, 7. 

Landmarks, xxiv, 2. 

Leprosy, the, {elephantiasis,) ii, 7. 

Letters, the origin of, xix, 23. 

Life, origin of— Israelitish view, x, 8-12. 

Mantle, rending of, i, 20. 

Mediation, modes of, Excursus" iv, p. 91. 

Mediator, angel, Excursus vii, p. 207. 

Medicine, knowledge of, v, 18 ; xiii, 4. 

Merchants, Canaanite, xli, 6. 

Mining, xxviii, 1-11. 

Money, sealing of, xiv, 17. 

Mourning, real and ceremonial, ii, 11-13 ; 
xxix, 25. 

Music, festive, xxi, 12. 

Nets, use of, xli, 1. 

Nile, the river, vii, 12; viii, 11; ix, 26. 

Offerings, burnt, i, 5 ; xlii, 8. 

Ophir, site of, xxii, 24. 

Papyrus, ships of, ix, 26. 

Petra, description of, Excursus ix, p. 282. 



Phoenicia, (ancient Canaan,) xli, 6; Excur- 
sus ix, pp. 282, 283. 

Pit, punishment in, xxxiii, 18. 

Ploughing, i, 14; xxxix, 10. 

Polygamy, xxvii, 15. 

Poor, tie, treatment of, v, 15; xx, 19; 
xxx, 25 ; xxxi, 16, 19 ; xxxiv, 19. 

Potter, the, the skill of, x, 8, 9 ; xxxiii, 6. 

Princes, iii, 15 ; xii, 19, 21 ; xxi, 28 ; xxix, 9 ; 
xxxiv, 19. 

Proceedings, judicial, ix, 24, 33 ; xi, 10 ; xiii, 
18-27 ; xiv, 17 ; xvii, 3 ; xxiv, 1 ; xxix, 7 ; 
xxxi, 34, 35. 

Processions, funeral, xxi, 32, 33. 

Punishments, civil, stocks, xiii, 27; xxxiii, 11, 
fetters, cords, xxxvi, 8. 
beheading, xix, 29 ; xxxvi, 12. 

Pyramids, the, iii, 14. 

Raids, Chaldaean, ancient and modern, i, 17. 

Ransom or atonement, xxxiii, 24 ; xxxvi, 18. 

Refining, the art of, xxviii, 1. 

Rephaim, the, Excursus iii, p. 73; xxvi, 5. 

Resurrection, heathen belief in, iii, 14 ; Ex- 
cursus v, pp. 137, 138 ; Excursus ix, p. 
285. 

Retribution, doctrine of, among the an- 
cients, iv, 8; xii, 18; xv, 20-22; xvi, 
18; xix, 4; xxi, 19, 30. 

Robbing, a profession, xii, 6 ; xxiv, 2, 3, 14 ; 
xxx, 5. 

Sackcloth, wearing of, xvi, 15. 

Sacrifices, i, 5 ; xlii, 8. 

human, Excursus ix, p. 287, 288. 

Sacrifice, vicarious, among the Chaldaeans, 
p. 288. 

Satan, Excursus i and ii, pp. 33-36. 

Security, giving of, xvii, 3. 

Sepulchres, rock, iii, 14; xxi, 33. 

Serpent-worship in Egypt, Excursus ix, p. 287. 

Service, postal, ix, 25. 

Shaddai, the word, viii, 2. 

Sheol, x, 22; xiv, 14; xxvi, 5; xxx, 23; 
Excursus iii, pp. 72-74. 

Sorcery, iii, 8. 

Spirit, {rouahh,) origin of word, iv, 15 ; 
xxxii, 8. 

Stars, morning, xxxviii, 7. 

Stranger, the, treatment of, xv, 19; xxxi, 32. 

Strophes, arrangement of Book in, p. 11 ; 
ix, 8; xxxvi, 22; pp. 184, 185. 

Suicide foreign to the Hebrew mind, vi, 9 ; 
vii, 15. 

Time, shadow for marking, vii, 2. 

Tombs, burial in, iii, 15 ; xiv, 13 ; xvii, 13. 

Travellers, conveyancers of knowledge, 
xxi, 29. 
tokens of, xxi, 29. 

Treasures, hiding of, iii, 21. 

Typhon, or Set, Excursus viii, pp. 279, 280. 

Visions, in patriarchal times, iv, 12. 

Wadies, vi, 16, 17 ; xi, 16. 

Weaving, art of, vii, 6. 

Widows, treatment of, xxii, 9 ; xxiv, 3, 21 ; 
xxxi, 16. 

Wine drinking, i, 13, 18. 

Woman, her position, i, 4 ; ii, 10. 
inheritance of, xlii, 15. 

Worship, Phallic, Excursus ix, p. 287. 

Writing, art of, xix, 23. 



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